We now have official evidence that Luke Skywalker knew of Cal Kestis thanks to the release of a recent Star Wars book. Kestis, the protagonist of the Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor games, was directly mentioned by the hero, making me hopeful we'll eventually see Cameron Monaghan's character in live-action.

Kotaku was the first to spot Kestis' name in a re-release of the book, Star Wars: The Secrets of the Jedi: The Chronicles of Luke Skywalker, which has added some passages since its initial release in 2019. Here's what it said about Luke's knowledge of Cal, and the implications it may have for upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.

What Luke Skywalker Says About Cal Kestis

Luke's mention of Cal comes amidst a journal entry tied to Order 66. As diehard Star Wars fans know, Order 66 did not eliminate the Jedi entirely, but left them scattered and in hiding in the decades that followed. Though brief, Kestis is mentioned in passing as one of the few who escaped the attack:

What's notable about this passage, brief as it may be, is that Luke knew that Kestis was alive, and that Jaro Tapal was not. Did he find some sort of extensive records from the Empire detailing the status of each registered Jedi at the time of Order 66? Possibly, but I'd think it would be easier, and even possible, that he heard about this from Kestis himself.

Cal Kestis was last seen in Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. He'd successfully found a hidden planet named Tanalorr, only accessible through specific star paths unknown to the Empire. Here, Cal had a haven to restore the Jedi order in solitude, but struggled with his growing attachment to the Dark Side. A third game to presumably complete Cal's story is expected to be released, but we don't know when to expect it.

Could Cal Kestis Appear In A Live-Action Star Wars Project?

I've wanted to see Cal Kestis in live-action for quite a while, especially if there's a chance of him rubbing shoulders with Luke Skywalker. Unfortunately, father time is a bit of a component when it comes to this, as Kestis is canonically around a decade older than Skywalker.

Cameron Monaghan could play Cal Kestis, but we'd obviously need a younger actor to play Luke Skywalker in the era directly after Return of the Jedi. Otherwise, the math just doesn't work out, and while they could get an older actor to play Kestis, I genuinely think they should stick with the acclaimed Gotham actor who voices and was the inspiration for the character's model.

Another major hurdle to showing this potential meeting in action would be casting a young Luke Skywalker. While Mark Hamill has signed off on Disney eventually replacing him as Luke, the latest appearances by the star have come via deep fake and AI recreations of Hamill playing his younger self. It's fine for quick appearances, but I can't imagine an AI Luke taking a big role in a series or movie.

Cal Kestis is one of Star Wars' most interesting characters, forced into hiding while still a Padawan. He continued to hone his skills as a Jedi without the training of a master, which has led to his unique relationship with the Force. Kestis has used both Light and Dark side powers, and doesn't practice quite as much self-control of his emotions. I'd love to see how this would impact the Jedi order, especially if he'd been living in seclusion and training others in the Force since then.

We'll see if this recent mention gets us any closer to Cal Kestis in live-action, and continue to wait on whatever future Star Wars projects come down the road. I'd love to see Cal, but it seems like what's on tap is also pretty great as well.

Mild spoilers below for HBO’s The Penguin, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched or streamed with a Max subscription.

With its first four episodes, The Penguin has not only lived up to the esteemed reputation of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but it’s also become a bastion of pride and hope for DC fans disenfranchised by the box office rejection of Joker: Folie à Deux. It’s arguably already in the Top 10 tier out of everything that’s hit the 2024 TV schedule so far. But you know what could possibly make it even better? Gotham characters.

I know, I know, this is as much of an exercise in Bat-futility as fighting for Gotham to survive beyond its five seasons. But while Robert Pattinson’s solo Caped Crusder feature was often a bit too dour for Gotham’s over-the-top shenanigans, Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb and his underworld could provide a more perfect union between the two universes, if only in my well-intentioned headcanon.

It’d be one thing if we knew for a fact that The Penguin wasn’t introducing any other major Batman characters from comics and other lore beyond the Falcones and Maronis, but the fourth episode surprisingly introduced, and brutally dispatched, a lesser-utilized villain who informed Sofia’s time in Arkham Asylum. (And one who also popped up in Gotham, non-coincidentally enough.) So let’s look at the actors and characters I think would work best within showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s G.C.

Donal Logue's Harvey Bullock

Donal Logue is the kind of actor that makes everything better, and rarely takes parts in subjectively terrible projects, so he’s a best-case scenario for entertainment hounds. He can bring both comedic and dramatic chops to whatever part he’s playing, and commands attention while doing it. So he wouldn’t be in danger of being out-acted alongside the lofty talents of Farrell, Cristin Milioti, and others.

And that’s just talking about Logue himself. It’s been two and a half years since The Batman came out, and I’m still fooling myself into thinking Harvey Bullock existed in that film, because he’s such a classic foil and enforcer within the GCPD in just about every iteration of Gotham City’s law enforcement rankings. But no, he wasn’t in there at all.

There’s no need for The Penguin’s creative team to think-tank up a brand new version of the character, either. Just go with a version we all know and love who isn’t so much of a dirty-dealing douchebag, but also isn’t a costume-glorifying sycophant. He’s been right there waiting the whole time, and he looks a lot like Donal Logue.

Morena Boccarin's Dr. Lee Thompkins

For anyone who was a bit bummed out that Morena Baccarin didn’t have more of a hefty role within Shawn Levy’s madcap Deadpool & Wolverine, you’re not alone. And that was hardly the first time the actress got mixed up with characters who lead deadly and sordid lives. Only in Gotham, Baccarin’s Dr. Lee Thompkins wasn’t on the outside of the story; she was fully invested in batshit, action-packed arcs that turned her from romantic interest to a villainous partner for Ed Nygma.

Even when the story seemed wonky, Baccarin is the kind of pro that made it all work, and I think she would bring the same gravitas to The Penguin, where a character like Lee Thompkins could provide a lot of help (or harm). Though neither the Waynes nor James Gordon is part of Oz’s TV world, this is a show with an already established (if entirely questionable) psychologist in Theo Rossi’s Dr. Julian Rush.

Depending on where Rush’s story goes, and whether or not he remains a helpful and living presence to Sofia throughout the season, I could easily see the series bringing in Leslie Thompkins to either investigate the other doctor’s practices or to potentially sway Sofia to her own teachings.

Drew Powell's Butch Gilzean

As it went with so many of Gotham’s cast members, Drew Powell could turn any scene from a snore into a riot as the boss-flipping enforcer Butch Gilzean. The actor is a big and intimidating dude, which helps to sell the role since he’s also quite a brainy and intelligent charmer. Honestly, if Butch entered the world of The Penguin, he’d probably be a made man before the end of his first episode.

By the end of Gotham’s run, Butch was revealed to be the alter ego of zombie-man Solomon Grundy, which turned into a whole stockpile of bonkers in and of itself. But I think we can all agree that The Penguin should and would bypass that whole Slaughter Swamp-related arc and just keep it to Powell’s more distinctly human performance. And it would be awesome.

Surprise Fourth Entry! Cameron Monaghan's Jeremiah Valeska

Yeahhhh, okay, so as a Gotham fanatic, I would have trouble making it through life with my sanity intact if didn’t continuously preach for Cameron Monaghan’s return to the DC universe as some version of The Joker. His performances on Gotham as both Jerome and Jeremiah (and eventually just “J”) were rather iconic at times, and understandably could only happen in bursts rather than as an ongoing arc across 20+ episodes.

A show like The Penguin, with its shortened season length, would be a perfect spot for either a similar mini-arc, or even just a one-episode appearance, from Monaghan in an outlandish capacity. Obviously this is a more grounded crime drama that has spawned myriad comparisons to The Sopranos, but Jeremiah Valeska is far calmer and quieter than his brother was, and with fewer scars.

Granted, Barry Keoghan’s brief appearance in The Batman is presumably setting up a bigger Joker arc in The Batman: Part II, which would make Cameron Monaghan’s proto-Clown Prince somewhat redundant. As if such a word could be applied to the gloriousness of Gotham’s Valeska brothers. So I guess it’s the least likely of any of these pipe dreams, but in chaos, we trust.

The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Gotham may not have shown Batman until the final seconds of its series finale, but the Fox show certainly had no problem putting its own spin on the members of the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery, from Penguin and Riddler being two of the most important characters, to folks like Mr. Freeze and Mad Hatter causing trouble across multiple seasons. However, one villain who technically got the Gotham treatment was Batman’s arch-nemesis, The Joker. Instead, identical twins Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, played by Cameron Monaghan, filled the void left by The Clown Prince of Crime, and Gotham producer John Stephens addressed the difficulties that came with this approach.

It’s not like the creative minds behind Gotham deliberately steered clear of using The Joker, it’s just that during the show’s five-season run, they were told by “higher ups,” as Monaghan once described them, that the name Joker and his trademark green hair could not be used. Jerome and Jeremiah were each labeled as a “Proto-Joker,” and here’s what Stephens had to say about this in a Gotham oral history put together by IGN:

Introduced in the Season 1 episode “The Blind Fortune Teller,” Jerome Valeska was initially only supposed to be a one-off character, but Cameron Monaghan impressed the Gotham team with his performance so much that he was brought back as a recurring player for three more seasons. Then in the final stretch of Gotham Season 4, Jeremiah was introduced, and he stuck around as a recurring adversary as well until the show came to an end. The brothers portrayed different characteristics of The Joker, with Jerome being more impulsive and chaotic, and Jeremiah being more level-headed and calculating. It was a unique way to adapt this classic comic book foe, but judging by Stephens’ comment, it was a hassle trying to make this work with the imposed restrictions.

Jerome was ultimately killed (for good this time) by James Gordon in “That’s Entertainment,” but Jeremiah soon took his place after he was dosed with a special blend of the laughing toxin Scarecrow created. Outside of turning his skin chalk white, Jeremiah claimed that the toxin had no effect on his sanity, although during Season 5, he started to become more unhinged. After falling into a vat of chemicals that disfigured him in “Ace Chemicals,” Jeremiah’s sanity further deteriorated, to the point that in the series finale, titled “The Beginning,” after a decade of pretending to be comatose, he essentially showed all of Joker’s traits. In fact, he didn’t even think of himself as Jeremiah anymore, saying that he felt something “new” and “beautiful” emerging from his past self.

Whether or not Jeremiah will become The Joker to David Mazouz’s Batman or if another individual will take on that mantle is up to fans’ imaginations. Still, I can’t help but wonder how Gotham might have turned out if it had been able to handle The Joker in a more traditional manner. The tradeoff, though, is that we wouldn’t have gotten to see Cameron Monaghan play these twin brothers who, although quite different from each others in certain ways, each effectively served as impressive stand-ins for the cackling villain. Break out your Max subscription if you’d like to revisit those performances.

As we eagerly await the cinematic offerings of the 2024 movie schedule, one title set for release in 2025 has captured our imagination: Tron: Ares. The third installment in the Disney franchise, featuring Jared Leto and a returning Jeff Bridges, is rapidly materializing into something tangible and thrilling. In an exclusive insight into the world of the upcoming Disney movie, Cameron Monaghan reveals his deep connection and fascination with the set of the highly anticipated film. According to the Shameless veteran, the set was so “awesome” he’d show up on his days off, a testament to the excitement and anticipation surrounding the movie.

During a conversation at the Calgary Expo (via Collider), Monaghan shared personal stories about his love and involvement in the Tron saga, a journey that began years before becoming cast in the sequel to one of the greatest science fiction movies ever. The Gotham alum says he first saw the original film on an international flight and was immediately struck by its imagery. He told the outlet:

This early exposure to the film's groundbreaking visuals had a profound impact on him, a fascination that only intensified over the years. Now part of the Tron: Ares cast, Monaghan believes the new installment will further advance the franchise's innovative legacy. He expressed great admiration for the film's direction and the meticulousness of the practical sets, which he found so compelling that he would visit them even on his days off. He continued:

The Giver actor’s fascination with the set should have longtime fans excited. Much like the earlier entries, Ares is set to deliver the visual spectacle. As the actor describes, the sets don’t just sound like film sets but intricate pieces of the expansive Tron universe.

While the full impact of the next installment on the Tron series' timeline remains somewhat shrouded in mystery, we have a few intriguing details. Jared Leto's character, Ares, is an AI transitioning into the human world, though it's still unclear if he will emerge as a savior or a threat to mankind. Additionally, Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has revealed that the new movie's plot draws inspiration from Ascension's original storyline.

Tron: Ares will be released exclusively in theaters on October 10, 2025. In the meantime, you can watch the first two movies with a Disney+ subscription.

Cameron Monaghan's had many memorable roles over the years, from playing Ian Gallagher as part of the cast of Shameless (one of the best Showtime shows) for over a decade, to Cal Kestis in the single-player video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its sequel Jedi: Survivor (for which he was trained by the one, the only Mark Hamill). But if there's one role we really want to see the actor reprise, it's The Joker.

Monaghan recently revealed his wish of a potential live-action debut for his Star Wars character, telling The Direct while at FanExpo Vancouver 2024 that he would return to the role of Cal Kestis on the big screen under specific conditions:

And while it would undoubtedly be cool to see Cameron's Jedi Knight on the silver screen and learn how the character would fit into the existing Star Wars movies, we can't help but selfishly want to see Monaghan step back into the shoes (or the suit, so long as it gets dry-cleaned first) of one of his other famous characters: Jeremiah Valeska, who serves as the origins of the comic-book supervillain The Joker on the Fox superhero drama Gotham. 

Monaghan portrayed both Jeremiah and his nihilistic twin Jerome Valeska on the crime drama, until the latter's eventual death, with Jeremiah acting as the show's resident Joker equivalent through its end in April 2019. 

The role of the Joker is no doubt a daunting one for an actor—both the late, great Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix earned Academy Awards for playing the Clown Prince of Crime onscreen, though Monaghan proclaimed that he actively avoided watching the latter for his own performance's sake. He has previously told CinemaBlend about portraying the famous villain: 

Of course, with Gotham off the air, it's unclear in what project or even medium Monaghan's Jeremiah/Joker can crop up, especially now that we have an entirely new Joker in Barry Keoghan, who briefly appeared in 2022's The Batman and will likely reprise the role for The Batman: Part 2. But we're still holding out hope that, somehow, Cameron's crazy-brilliant Jeremiah Valeska will be back again. In the meantime, sure, a Jedi will do too. 

Before Jeremy Allen White made a splash on the 2023 movie schedule in The Iron Claw and got everyone saying “Yes, chef!” after seeing one of Hulu’s best shows, The Bear, he was best known as Lip Gallagher from Showtime’s Shameless. The Emmy-nominated actor played the second oldest Gallagher sibling for eleven seasons, and to this day, he’s close with that cast. However, when he was auditioning for the series, he actually wanted to play a different role in the dramedy.

We all have come to know and love Jeremy Allen White as Lip when it comes to Shameless. However, when he was a guest on Just for Variety, he revealed he originally wanted to play Ian, the slightly younger Gallagher who was ultimately played by Cameron Monaghan. Speaking about the audition process, and his thoughts surrounding the news back then, White said:

On the surface, Ian might seem like the more complex character to play of the two. Between his relationship with Mickey and his storyline surrounding him being diagnosed as bipolar, there was a lot to dig into for Ian. However, the same can be said about Lip. As the second oldest sibling, he was tasked with taking care of his younger siblings, and his struggle with embracing his intelligence to move up and being stuck in the brutal cycle of poverty was one of the most compelling arcs of Shameless to me.

As White said, he really came around to playing Lip, and he has a lot of love for Cameron Monaghan and the entire Shameless cast. Also, these two guys have such great chemistry as Lip and Ian, and I can’t imagine anyone else in their roles. 

While White was candid about not necessarily wanting to play Lip at first, he grew to love him and the show. Now that he’s a few years removed from Shameless, he looks back on his time fondly, and he even told Vanity Fair that if he were to get a tattoo, it’d be for his character from the Showtime staple: 

To this day, the cast is tight, for example, the Shameless family reunited for the SAG-AFTRA strikes on multiple occasions, and they came together to celebrate the holidays a few years ago. Their love for each other speaks to how well this show was cast, and it seems like Jeremy Allen White is very grateful for that now, even though he wanted to play Ian at first. 

Hopefully, someday, we’ll get to see Jeremy Allen White and Cameron Monaghan share the screen again. While that may be a dream, luckily, we can always see these two anytime we want as the beloved brothers Lip and Ian by streaming Shameless with a Netflix subscription. 

As the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes continue with no end in sight, more and more stars are coming out to the picket lines to show solidarity. After the cast of Shameless got together earlier in the strike, the Gallaghers are continuing to show their support. While Cameron Monaghan was absent from the initial reunion, he did reunite with former co-star Isidora Goreshter with a sign that would make his on-screen family proud.

Monaghan portrayed Ian Gallagher on one of Showtime’s best series, and he is keeping the family legacy alive. The actor took to Instagram to share photos from his time picketing at Disney Studios in Burbank alongside Goreshter and actress Madisen Beaty. With a sign saying, “The AMPTP is more shameless than Frank Gallagher,” it looked like the perfect way to show their support for the unions and pay homage to Shameless:

If you’re unfamiliar with Shameless or need a refresher, the sign is in reference to the Gallagher family patriarch, Frank Gallagher, portrayed by William H. Macy. He was an alcoholic, unemployed, made money through scams, and often endangered or abandoned his children. So, saying the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is more shameless than him is saying a lot, and it gets the actors' feelings about the AMPTP across very clearly.

Even though Cameron Monaghan wasn't with his Shameless family back in July, he did seem to make up for it with that sign. Maybe he can even be part of the next reunion, whether it’s on the picket lines or a family dinner. At least he was able to reunite with Isadora Goreshter, who played Svetlana Yevgenivna on the dramedy. It may have been only two years since the Shameless series finale aired, but any kind of reunion or reference just takes us right back to the good old days.

While Monaghan missed the recent Shameless reunion, he did spend the holiday with the Gallaghers back in 2021. He reunited with Noel Fisher, Emma Kenney, Shanola Hampton, Kate Miner, Steve Howey, and Ethan Cutkosky for a Shameless party. Now, two years after the finale, it seems like the cast is still as close as ever and still having family reunions. Though, instead of spending the holidays together, they are picketing together, which is even better.

As of now, there doesn’t seem to be anything indicating that a resolution is coming soon for either the WGA or SAG-AFTRA. Many networks have had to rework their fall 2023 TV schedule since most scripted originals are not in production. Plenty of actors and writers have been taking to either the picket lines or social media to show support and tell their own stories of being a member of the union and why it’s so important that these agreements to happen. Hopefully, a resolution will come soon, and the actors won't have to keep using that shameless sign. 

Warning! The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Ahsoka and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Read at your own risk!

Ahsoka is finally available for sci-fi fans with Disney+ subscriptions, and while I enjoyed the first two episodes of what feels like a live-action continuation of Star Wars Rebels, I still couldn't shake the feeling that the story thus far is similar to one that I've heard and actively experienced before. Franchise fanatics who are also gamers likely checked out Cameron Monaghan's return as Cal Kestis for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor earlier this year, and after watching Ahsoka, I can't be the only one who noticed some key similarities between the two projects. 

No doubt Ahsoka and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are completely different in the majority of ways, but the comparison points that have already sprung up cannot be ignored, especially since the game just came out earlier in the same year. Here's what stood out to me after the first two episodes, and why I think it might be handy if Rosario Dawson's Ahsoka Tano sent a message to Cal Kestis for some pointers on how to navigate this situation. 

Both Ahsoka And Jedi Survivor Feature Opposing Sides Using A Map Device To Reach A Point In The Galaxy

In Ahsoka, the much-beloved Jedi with a long history is at odds with Morgan Elsbeth, one of Thrawn's old allies. Both are in search of the location of the Grand Admiral, but of course with different purposes in mind. Ahsoka Tano wishes to bring the Grand Admiral to justice, while Elsbeth needs him to help bolster and rally the remnants of the Empire. Both need the coordinates on the device to find Thrawn, as well as the missing Jedi Ezra Bridger. 

In Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Cal Kestis is in search of a map device from the High Republic era with coordinates to a hidden planet untouched by Empire rule. Once there, his hope is to rebuild the Jedi Order in seclusion, and establish forces against the Empire, though he's not the only one. Kestis went up against a fallen High Republic Jedi reawakened from stasis, Dagan Gara, as well as his cohort Rayvis. Quite a few people wanted to get their boots on this planet for various reasons, but at the risk of getting too spoilery, I'll just leave it at that.

The differences between the characters' missions and motivations are apparent, but there's a clear similarity in the idea of fighting over a map device that serves as the only way for our heroes to reach a certain spot in the galaxy. The journey took Cal and friends quite a distance to different locations, so I'm hoping the same will happen in Ahsoka. 

Both Include A Witch From Dathomir Providing Assistance

One other neat similarity is that both projects introduce a witch from Dathomir to add some mystical assistance. In Ahsoka, Morgan Elsbeth is linked to the Nightsisters of Dathomir, and her connection to them even gives Baylen Skoll's apprentice, Shin, pause. Even those entrenched within the Empire don't like to mess with the witches and with good reason. They're pretty creepy and powerful. 

• Ahsoka: An Updated Cast List For Disney+'s Star Wars Series, Including Rosario Dawson

In Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Merrin is a Nightsister, ally, and love interest of Cal Kestis. Using her magic, she's able to aid Cal in his journey and ultimately helps him find the hidden planet with the aid of her supernatural abilities. The key difference here is that the Nightsister is helping the good guys in their mission, whereas the bad guys have her in Ahsoka. In any case, I'm so glad to see the Nightsisters getting more attention in the lore. 

Both Stories Potentially Rely On High Republic Technology

Ahsoka doesn't explicitly explain the origins of the mapping device during its first two episodes, but the device and imagery in the temple she obtains look very similar to the High Republic puzzles found in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Star Wars Rebels referenced old Jedi technology during the end of its run, but the series aired before The High Republic initiative. None of this is confirmed, to be sure, but going by the High Republic aesthetics shown in comics and the game, I think the influence seems pretty clear. 

In any case, both projects are great and worth checking out. I wouldn't call either of them ripoffs or copycats, since this is a universe of cyclical storytelling, after all. But these similarities can't be denied in my mind, and I'm hoping they end up meaning something deeper. 

New episodes of Ahsoka premiere on Disney+ on Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. As someone who is in that time zone, I love the time switch-up of being able to see new episodes in primetime rather than the following morning, so here's hoping the trend continues with future releases. 

It seems like Tron 3 has been in development for forever, with over a decade separating the Disney three-quel from Tron: Legacy. But the gears have been turning pretty fast for the film finally confirmed to be titledTron: Ares. With Jared Leto and Evan Peters kicking off the casting for this long-awaited follow-up, the doors are open for all sorts of new talent to sign on.

From this point on, we’re about to run down the cast list for Tron’s next adventure, which is slated to hit theaters in October 2025! You’ll definitely want to keep tabs on the information we’re about to present, as it’s bound to change from time to time. That having been said, let’s get up to speed with the who’s who of the world once run by CLU.

Jared Leto

The first cast member to sign up for Tron 3 was a recent addition to the Disney family, actor Jared Leto. Currently, you can see him raising all sorts of hell in Disney’s Haunted Mansion adventure as the Hat Box Ghost. However, before that movie even went into production, Leto was cast in 2020 to become a part of this new chapter in Encom history. 

Cue the stories of how the Morbius actor was getting ripped for his new role, as well as that time he may have accidentally leaked the Tron: Ares title way ahead of the game in 2020. The point is, even in the real world, it feels like Jared Leto helped keep the fires of this world burning. Though inside of that fictional universe, he might be the one to burn it all down.

Playing an artificial intelligence that’s trying to make its way into the human world, Jared Leto sounds like he’ll be Tron 3's functional villain. However, who can really say, as these movies have featured AI in both heroic and villainous ways. Still, as the titular character Ares, Leto is initiating a moment that humanity isn’t exactly prepared for, that sort of talk is the greatest sign of being an ally to our world. 

Evan Peters

With Jared Leto as the foundation on which Tron: Ares’ cast has been built, it took a couple of years before we learned about any other players set to join him. That changed very quickly in 2023, and it started with the announcement of Evan Peters’ Tron 3 casting. 

Another Disney vet, thanks to his role in Wandavision, Peters came on board as the first in a wave of several announcements that happened around the same time. Details on the Tron character Evan Peters was picked for are scarce. 

However, THR did mention some interesting details in its reporting of the deal. Apparently, he may be playing a character that is speculated to be “a soldier in the computer world and an awkward gamer in the human world." So if Jared Leto is our villain, then Peter's unspecified lead might be the hero. 

Greta Lee

Continuing the train of good news for those wondering what’s going on with Tron 3, was a double shot of casting that happened at the same time. Coming off of the success of A24’s Past Lives, as well as reprising her role of Lyla in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Greta Lee was the first of two female leads cast for this Disney adventure. 

As Ms. Lee was drafted into the world of Tron, we also got a glimpse into who her character will be. Since those sorts of details are a bit rare, learning that Greta will be playing “a video game programmer and tech company CEO who aims to protect her world-changing technology” was a bit of a game changer. 

Whether this is a new company, or if Greta Lee’s character is the new face of ENCOM management, is an intriguing question that currently does not have an answer. Especially if Tron: Ares somehow ties into previous adventures like Tron: Legacy, which saw the landmark computer company run by Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund).

Jodie Turner-Smith

As Tron 3 scored two female leads at the same time, those two announcements were handily rolled into a single event. So when Greta Lee was revealed to be part of this digital/physical hybrid world, so was Jodie Turner-Smith. 

Seen in action films like Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, as well as being lined up for the dark Star Wars spinoff series The Acolyte, Turner-Smith is another performer who seems to be sticking with her new Disney family. Unfortunately, her character details haven’t been unveiled as of yet; so we’re not sure which side of the screen she shall be representing in Tron: Ares.

Cameron Monaghan

Shameless and Gotham star Cameron Monaghan is yet another Disney-adjacent actor lined up for Tron 3's fight between Program and User. Monaghan is also a familiar face to Star Wars fans, thanks to his role in Jedi: Fallen Order.

News of Monaghan's involvement broke via Deadline, and that’s about all there is to report at this moment. This next Tron film is pretty selective with what information is revealed to the public, so it’s unsurprising that this is yet another case of specifics being played close to the identity disc.

It is also hard not to think of the actor's bonkers Gotham performance, and how that Joker-esque energy could best be used to create a wild card on The Grid similar to Michael Sheen's Castor in Tron: Legacy. At least, one can truly hope for such madness.

Gillian Anderson

As far as the world of sci-fi goes, Gillian Anderson is practically royalty. Thanks to her long-running role as the skeptical Dana Scully on The X-Files, genre fans have long held Ms. Anderson in high regard. With general audiences doing the same, thanks to her roles on The Crown and Sex Education, Gillian’s presence on the Tron: Ares roster is something that needs celebrating, and definitely hints at a new authority figure in this universe.

Hasan Minhaj

Well well well, another Disney vet here to represent! Fresh off of his role in 2023’s Haunted Mansion reboot, comedian Hasan Minhaj is another addition that could probably bring his own mouse ears to the Tron: Ares set. As you can guess, the details on The Morning Show star’s role are under tight encryption, but to be honest, it’s just really cool to see another comedic talent on hand for some potential levity. 

Arturo Castro

Racking up credits on series like The Recruit and The Terminal List, as well as through movies such as The Menu and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, actor Arturo Castro is a versatile talent. Though audiences will next see him in Amazon’s Road House remake, Castro has secured himself his own segment of Tron: Ares real estate. So sing along with this next part if you know it…but his role in this new project is classified, and requires Level 7 access.

Sarah Desjardins

Another mysterious presence in Tron: Ares is that of Canadian actor Sarah Desjardins. A veteran of hit TV series like Yellowjackets and The Night Agent, Ms. Desjardins’ addition to the cast of this long awaited three-quel is shrowded in secrecy. As such, we’ll have to wait to find out who she’ll be playing in the grand scheme of things.

Jeff Bridges

Last, but most certainly not least, is an addition that many fans have been hoping for since the day Tron 3 was announced. Spilling the beans during a podcast appearance in late April 2024, Jeff Bridges announced his return to The Grid for Ares! Naturally this more than likely means that Kevin Flynn will be making an appearance in this new adventure, but the real question is how?

While Tron: Ares has officially wrapped production to meet its October 10, 2025 release date, there’s plenty of time to learn the secrets of The Grid (grid, grid, grid). Using your Disney+ subscription, the world of Tron is completely at your fingertips. So if you’re someone who’s a loyal warrior for the User, or a newcomer who wants to know what the fuss is about, you’re covered in either case. End of Line.

Becoming a Jedi Master is not something you can do on your own. Luke Skywalker had Obi-Wan and Yoda to help him before Luke in turn trained Rey. And now “Luke” is back to help another student. In a hilarious ad for the upcoming Star Wars video game Jedi: Survivor, Mark Hamill trains Cameron Monaghan, who provides the voice and motion capture for game protagonist Cal Kestis. 

I mean, if you want to make sure that your actor is portraying a Jedi in the proper way, you need to get somebody who has experience doing that. Since Jedi: Survivor uses full motion capture Cameron Monaghan is essentially acting in the same way that he would if he were in a Star Wars movie, so call a guy who knows a couple of things about Star Wars movies. Although Mark Hamill might be having a bit too much fun here. Check it out

It’s a hilarious video that includes Hamill throwing popcorn at a blindfolded Monaghan and the Luke Skywalker actor criticizing his student’s lightsaber grip, before getting angry that Cal Kestis gets to swing a pair of lightsabers, something Luke never got to do in the movies. And let's be honest, a lot of people would love to have seen Luke swinging a pair of lightsabers.

Jedi: Survivor is the sequel to the game Jedi: Fallen Order. It’s set in the aftermath of the prequel trilogy and follows Cal Kestis, who survived Order 66 as a padawan and spent years hiding that he was a Jedi before circumstances forced him to reveal himself. The first game saw him find a small band of proto-Rebels that he aligned with and they searched for Holocron that contained the names of Force-sensitive children the Empire was after.

Jedi: Fallen Order is supposed to be officially canon with the current Star Wars universe, so seeing Cal Kestis appear as a character in a live-action Star Wars project isn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility. You can even buy Cal’s lightsaber hilt at Star Wars: Galaxy Edge, which was something fans specifically asked for showing just how popular the game was. 

Star Wars video games have been in a place not that different from Star Wars movies in recent years, which is to say, complicated. EA had the exclusive license to make Star Wars titles and a lot of what came from that hit a sour note with fans, while other high-profile projects that looked promising fell apart. Jedi: Fallen Order was a rare exception that was a massive hit, which makes Jedi: Survivor a very hotly anticipated title. It looks good enough that it certainly has me wondering if I need to buy a new console so I can actually play it. 

The esteemed actors of the Criminal Minds cast not only had the honor of starring on one of the longest-running and most beloved crime procedurals on TV, but also had the pleasure of sharing the screen with many guest stars who would go on to become some of the biggest stars of today. Considering how it ran for a whopping total of 15 seasons on CBS, you can only imagine how many future Hollywood heavies appeared on the series. The following are some of the most recognizable names we dug up after their roles on Criminal Minds completely slipped our minds, starting with one actor who just a few years away from becoming TV royalty.

Aaron Paul (Michael Zizzo) 

In the premiere season of Criminal Minds (when Mandy Patinkin was still on the show), a 27-year-old Aaron Paul played a young man suspected of murder due to his involvement with a local group of Satanists who were framed by the high school student who turned out to be the real killer. In 2008, the actor played crystal meth dealer and manufacturer Jesse Pinkman on AMC’s Breaking Bad, for which he earned three Emmy Awards and a newfound reputation as a leading man on both the small screen and the big screen. 

Dean Norris (Det. John Barton) 

Speaking of Breaking Bad cast members, Dean Norris is still known best to this day for his role as Hank Schrader - devoted DEA agent and unsuspecting brother-in-law of notorious drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) - on the acclaimed drama. He had actually already been cast on the show when he was temporarily demoted to police detective for a 2010 episode of Criminal Minds, on which his character helps the crew locate the last victim of a serial killer with clues he strangely left after taking his own life.

Walton Goggins (John Cooley)

Speaking of strange criminals, Walton Goggins received his sole Emmy nomination (so far) for playing Boyd Crowder on FX’s Justified, which would lead to an increasingly esteemed film career that includes a villainous role in the Marvel movies (namely 2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp) and becoming a frequent player in Quentin Tarantino’s recent filmography. In between his stint on The Shield and joining the Justified cast, the actor played a longtime friend of Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) who almost falls prey to a murderous priest (Carmen Argenziano) in a creepy Criminal Minds episode from Season 4.

Sterling K. Brown (Fitz) 

Sterling K. Brown also became a Marvel movie star in 2018 after appearing in Black Panther, following his Emmy-winning turns on both FX’s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson as Christopher Darden and NBC’s This Is Us cast as Randall Pearson. Before all of that, in 2015, the St. Louis native appeared as a security guard for the United States embassy in Barbados in a Season 10 episode of Criminal Minds that served as back door pilot for the series’ short-lived spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Mike Colter (Colin Bramwell)

Mike Colter would become a Marvel TV show star in 2015 after appearing on Netflix’s Jessica Jones as the indestructible Luke Cage before getting his own self-title spin-off and, then, reprising the role on the streaming platform’s crossover series, The Defenders. Before that short-lived, but much-loved, phenomenon blew up his career, the Evil cast member played a former Special Forces sniper turned serial killer hired by his former colleague to kill his ex-wife on Season 9 of Criminal Minds.

Evan Peters (Charlie Hillridge) 

Someone who is also known for both Marvel movies (he was Quicksilver in the X-Men movies) and Marvel TV shows (he sort of reprised the Quicksilver role when he joined the WandaVision cast) is Evan Peters, who would initially acquire household name status as a series regular on American Horror Story since 2011. About a year before that creepy anthology premiered, the actor guest starred on Criminal Minds’ sixth season as a young man who was abducted as an 8-year-old by married murderers who would later make him their reluctant accomplice.

Finn Wittrock (Harvey Morell) 

On the other side of that coin, Harvey Morell was the willful accomplice to a killer named Caleb Rossmore (Jeff Newburg), with whom he shared an obsession with the Zodiac Killer, on a Season 7 episode of Criminal Minds. Playing that young killer was fellow recurring American Horror Story cast member Finn Wittrock, who will also add superhero TV shows to his resume when he plays Guy Gardner - a member of the Green Lantern Corps - on HBO Max’s upcoming original series based on the cosmic DC comic book.

David Mazouz (Ryan Hall) 

Speaking of DC TV shows, in 2014, David Mazouz had the honor of joining the Gotham cast as a young Bruce Wayne dealing with the recent murder of his parents for five seasons. Years before the Batman prequel series premiered, the actor also appeared on a Season 7 of Criminal Minds as a boy whose battle with leukemia sends his boxing champ father (Shawn Hatosy) into a murderous rage.

Cameron Monaghan (Jeffrey Charles) 

David Mazouz’s Gotham co-star Cameron Monaghan (who plays a particularly clownish criminal named Jerome Valeska) is also famous for playing Ian Gallagher on the Shameless cast for 11 seasons. You could say that he had some decent preparation for the former, more villainous (and Joker-esque) role when he landed a guest spot on Criminal Minds’ sophomore run as a young boy abandoned by his mother who takes his anger out on three people by bludgeoning them to death.

Elle Fanning (Tracy Belle) 

Cameron Monaghan’s Jeffrey Charles almost claimed a fourth victim - a little girl named Tracy Belle, whom he lures out into the woods before Mandy Patinkin’s Jason Gideon saves her at, essentially, the last minute. Tracy Belle was played on Criminal Minds by Elle Fanning, who - like her older sister, Dakota - would grow up to become one of the most sought after actresses of her generation, known for movies like Super 8 from 2011 and for leading Hulu’s The Great cast as Catherine the Great.

Jessie T. Usher (Daniel)

If we could switch gears for just a moment back to stars of superhero TV shows, Jessie T. Usher is known today as Samuel L. Jackson’s son in Tim Story’s 2019 Shaft movie and Will Smith’s son in the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence, but especially from Amazon Prime’s The Boys cast as A-Train. Before he had a starring role in anything, he had a guest spot on Criminal Minds’ two-part Season 4 finale in which the BAU investigates a series of murder that leads to make a shocking discovery at a pig farm in Canada.

Ariel Winter (Katie)

Although best known as Alex Dunphy on the Modern Family cast, Ariel Winter also has experience playing a superhero, having voiced a later incarnation of Robin named Carrie Kelley in one of the best DC animated movies, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, in 2012 and 2013. Years before the ABC sitcom made her a star, Winter was on Criminal Minds Season 3 as a young girl abducted and left for dead by her own aunt (Suzanne Cryer) who blamed her niece for ruining her marriage to her pedophile husband (Emmanuel Xuereb).

Melissa Leo (Georgia Davis)

Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (for the 2011 sports biopic The Fighter) would actually make her superhero movies debut in 2021 with the Netflix original action comedy Thunder Force. In Criminal Minds two-part Season 2 finale, the actress played a small town sheriff whose abduction leads to the BAU’s first encounter with prolific serial killer Frank Breitkopft, played by Keith Carradine.

Julia Butters (Gabby) 

Another notable abduction victim from Criminal Minds is the title character of “Gabby,” the 16th episode of the series’ ninth season, which was also the acting debut of then-5-year-old Julia Butters. The starlet would then land a recurring spot on the Transparent cast, a starring role on CBS’s American Housewife, and a memorable, scene-stealing role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Rick Dalton’s precocious Lancer co-star. 

Sydney Sweeney (Dani Forester)

Fellow Once Upon a Time in Hollywood cast member Sydney Sweeney also made one of her earliest appearances on Criminal Minds as a young girl murdered along with her brother and mother by a serial killer who specializes in taking out whole families in Season 5. She would later achieve acclaim after joining the Handmaid’s Tale cast as Eden Spencer, the White Lotus cast as Olivia Mossbacher, and on HBO’s Euphoria cast as Cassie Howard, to name just a few notable roles. 

Anton Yelchin (Nathan Harris)

In lieu of the many notable roles that prove Anton Yelchin as one of the most exceptional talents of his time (Green Room, Charlie Bartlett, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies, etc.), he gave one criminally underrated performance on Criminal Minds’ second season as a teen with sexually sadistic tendencies. Sadly, Yelchin passed away in 2016 at the age of 27 when his Jeep Cherokee, which appeared to be in park but was really in neutral, rolled backward and pinned him against the security fence outside his Los Angeles home.

People who work in law enforcement likely rarely forget the faces of anyone they investigate, swore to protect, or failed to save. However, if you are guilty of forgetting any of these Criminal Minds characters and the now famous actors who played them,  you are forgiven.

Beloved Showtime dramedy Shameless came to an end earlier this year, and fans are still trying to figure out life without the series in their lives anymore. With Christmas right around the corner, some of the mega-ensemble's cast members have given fans a present in the form of a holiday reunion, which I guess wasn't only about making viewers happy. That said, while lots of familiar faces were on hand, there were a few notable absences.

Noel Fisher, who played the loveable fuck-up Mickey Milkovich throughout the show’s 11-season run, posted some cute photos on his social media pages of him hanging out with his Shameless family. The holiday reunion included Fisher's co-stars Emma Kenney, Shanola Hampton, Kate Miner, Cameron Monaghan, Steve Howey, and Ethan Cutkosky. Check out the fan-pleasing gathering below!

Even though it is a delight seeing the Shameless cast again, not everyone was able to show up to the reunion. Fans couldn’t help but notice that former stars William H. Macy, Emmy Rossum and Jeremy Allen White, in particular, were absent from the many pictures that were posted of the get-together. It’s unclear why they weren’t there, but hopefully they were just busy with other prior commitments, with Rossum seemingly having been working on the upcoming Peacock drama Angelyne ever since she left her role as Fiona Gallagher.

Meanwhile, Noel Fisher wasn’t the only one to happily share reunion pictures. Shanola Hampton, known as “V” on Shameless, shared additional photos to her Instagram that includes a selfie of her and her former castmates:

Appearing on Shameless since Season 9 as Tami Tamietti, Kate Miner also took to Instagram to revel in the happy reunion, and fans couldn’t get enough in the comments:

Emma Kenney, who grew up with the show while portraying Debs, also made sure to share pictures on her Instagram. It wasn’t so much of the reunion as a whole, but rather of the outfit she was wearing. And who can blame her when she pulls the look off in such a way:

It may not be so surprising to see that not everyone on cast showed up to the reunion. Emmy Rossum somewhat suddenly departed from Shameless after Season 9, and while it was definitely heartbreaking for viewers, Emma Kenney revealed in October of this year that Rossum's exit might have been a good thing, for one reason or another. It’s hard to tell what Rossum’s relationship has been like with Kenney and the rest of the cast over the last few years, but hopefully there are no hard feelings.

Fingers crossed that there is another Shameless reunion in the future, and perhaps even one for TV. Even though it hasn’t been that long since the series came to an end, fans were more than ecstatic to see their favorites together once again. Hopefully this isn’t the last time they’re together, but if all we get in the future is a franchise of buddy comedies co-starring Cameron Monaghan and Noel Fisher, so be it.

Christmas came early this year in the form of a Shameless reunion, and I could not be more grateful. Okay, I would have been more grateful if there was lots of videos. Still, it’s always nice seeing casts of shows that are no longer around getting back together, because it just shows that the chemistry on screen is just as real as it is in real life.

Because Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adapted only the first half of Frank Herbert’s same-named novel rather than the entire story, certain characters from the original source material were absent from this particular movie. However, with Warner Bros. and Legendary having officially greenlit Dune 2, fan-casting has begun for one of these important characters who will surely appear in the sequel: Feyd-Rautha. He was previously played by Sting in David Lynch’s Dune movie and Matt Keeslar in the Dune miniseries, and fans are now debating who should bring Feyd-Rautha in this new Dune world.

For those unfamiliar with Dune, Feyd-Rautha is the younger nephew of Baron Harkonnen, making Glossu Rabban his older brother; those characters were respectively played by Stellan Skarsgård and Dave Bautista in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. I won’t spoil how Feyd-Rautha fits into the Dune picture, other than to say that like his uncle, he’s cruel and conniving. So if the below person’s suggestion for Robert Pattinson to play Feyd-Rautha in Dune 2 became a reality, that would make an interesting 180 turn from him having just played the heroic Bruce Wayne in The Batman.

Other folks believe that there’s already the perfect candidate for Feyd-Rautha within the Skarsgård family. Bill Skarsgård, Stellan’s son, is arguably best known for playing Pennywise in the IT movies, so we know he can handle playing sinister characters quite well.

Another person who’s brought up is former One Direction member Harry Styles, who kicked off his acting career with Dunkirk and will star alongside Florence Pugh in next year’s Don’t Worry Darling. Playing Feyd-Rauth in Dune 2 would definitely be another big boost for his Hollywood profile.

For the Shameless, Gotham and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order fans out there, Cameron Monaghan’s name also popped up as someone who could bring Feyd-Rauth to life in Dune 2.

Finally, Eternals star Barry Keoghan has been suggested for the Feyd-Rauth role. In this case though, that chiefly stems from Keoghan tweeting the following shortly after it was announced that Dune 2 is moving forward:

How mysterious! You’re welcome to look around for other fan-casting suggestions, but with Dune 2 slated to come out in two years, it’s hard to say when we’ll learn who’s ultimately selected to play Feyd-Rauth. As things stand now, the sequel is slated for October 23, 2023, and along with many cast members from the first movie naturally returning, Denis Villeneuve will sit back in the director’s chair and Hans Zimmer will resume his scoring duties. A filming start date hasn’t been set yet, although Villeneuve said back in August it could begin by fall 2022.

For those of you who made it this far and haven’t seen Dune yet, it’s now playing both in theaters and on HBO Max. As soon as concrete details concerning Dune 2 come in, we’ll let you know. 

Major spoilers below for anyone who didn't watch Shameless' series finale on Showtime, so be warned!

After eleven seasons of boozed-up, dysfunctional mayhem from the entirety of the Gallagher family, Showtime's longest-running drama Shameless came to its bittersweet and darkly comedic conclusion with its series finale titled "Father Frank, Full of Grace." Fans had tons of expectations going into that finale, with the largest one hinging on Emmy Rossum returning as estranged daughter/sibling Fiona. That didn't happen, sadly, and the finale also surprisingly left things pretty open-ended for a variety of main characters. Well, except for William H. Macy's Frank, of course.

The Gallagher family patriarch and anti-role model Frank met his maker in a predictably strange and subdued fashion, which was capped off in one of the greatest mid-credits scenes in all of television. But before we get to that, let's talk about the glaring absence of one Emmy Rossum.

Why Emmy Rossum Didn't Return For Shameless' Finale

As Shameless fans are well aware, Emmy Rossum took absence from the Showtime drama back in March 2019 for the Season 9 finale, with Fiona rounding up some money and taking a plane ride the hell away from the rest of the Gallagher clan, never to return again. (At least during the show moments that viewers were privy to.) Though fans were strongly hoping for producers to find a way to bring Rossum back into the fold, it sadly did not happen. However, executive producer John Wells says that there definitely was a concerted effort to showcase Rossum's Fiona one final time, even though it didn't work out. Here's what he told TVLine:

As John Wells implied, the COVID pandemic has obviously taken serious tolls on untold numbers of people around the world, so a TV finale isn't the biggest victim here. But still, removed from that grander context, it was hugely disappointing to go through the entire finale without seeing Fiona pop up at some point. Even if it would have just been a Zoom call with Emma Kenney's Debbie or something. Sigh.

How Shameless Ended For Frank And Others

William H. Macy's Frank definitely had the most eventful finale, at least in terms of experiencing permanent character changes. The episode started off following up on his couch-set overdose from the previous episode, and in true Gallagher form, none of the family members did much to check on Frank's vitals or his general well-being. They just left him to his devices, and only Christian Isaiah's noticed whenever Frank got up and shambled out into the world.

Frank's issues were likely a mix of drugs in his system, his dementia, and his somewhat surprising COVID-19 diagnosis, and he looked like death warmed over, fittingly enough. After taking an ambulance ride from a church to a hospital, Frank found solace in a flashback-filled trip down memory lane, though none of his children found solace in the note he left before shooting up that last time, considering they didn't find the note at all before the credits rolled.

After Frank passed, his ghostly form floated above the heads of his family and friends inside The Alibi, watching over everyone until he made his grand exit by floating up into the ethers. It was an oddly supernatural moment for Shameless, but just in case that was too sweet of an ending for Frank, the episode's mid-credit moment added some hilarious punctuation to his death. As Frank's body was being processed inside a crematorium, it was so full of alcohol that it exploded the whole building.

Other characters' stories featured far less closure. Cameron Monaghan's Ian and Noel Fisher's Mickey, who'd recently moved into their own digs, discussed the notion of having children at some point. Mickey was haunted by the notion that he might fail as a dad, while Ian was more optimistic about the concept, even tossing the idea out there that they could potentially adopt someone less fortunate within the Noel's fam. Meanwhile, Debbie got horny for Shakira Barrera's criminalistic Heidi, but viewers never got to see if Debbie accepted Heidi's offer to leave Chicago on an expansive road trip.

Speaking of moments that weren't confirmed or otherwise, viewers were left in the dark about whether Jeremy Allen White's thirst-trapping Lip and Kate Miner's Tami will be having a child together, as it wasn't revealed in full whether Tami was pregnant. Lip was also having issues trying to sell the house, and likely wasn't going to make a proper amount of money off of it, so that's another blow against him. It also looked like The Alibi might get sold off, too, with Steve Howey's Kevin and Shanola Hampton's Veronica looking into their options. So it was somewhat surprising when Ethan Cutkosky's Carl and his fellow cop buddy (played by Joshua Malina) talked to Kevin about buying it and turning it into a cop-friendly bar. Of course, that was another plot strand that was left open-ended.

Given how many characters' stories didn't have proper conclusions, fans might have suspected that the creative team was setting up one or more spinoffs to hit Showtime at a later date. However, John Wells doesn't make it seem like that's the case at all. In his words:

For John Wells, it's more interesting to leave a story off when the action is still taking place, as opposed to letting things drift off after all the explanations have been laid out. It certainly gave viewers more to discuss by way of what they think will happen next for the characters, but it also likely made viewers pretty aggravated that so many story strands were left hanging.

Perhaps Shameless will one day live on in some other form, but for now, the Showtime drama has officially capped off its eleven-season run. While waiting to see everything that the cast is doing next, R.I.P. Frank, and we'll hopefully see you soon, Fiona!

Ten years after its series premiere, Shameless is coming to an end with its eleventh season. A rambunctious, irreverent American adaptation of the notorious British series, Shameless became a popular favorite for Showtime, propelling Emmy Rossum's career, providing a nice, steady gig for character actor William H. Macy, and launching and/or elevating the careers of Justin Chatwin, Cameron Monaghan, Jeremy Allen White, Emma Kenney, Shanola Hampton, and Steve Howey. Now that the series finale is set to air this Sunday, April 11th, what is the Shameless cast working on now? Let's find out!

William H. Macy (Frank Gallagher)

Playing the part of Frank Gallagher, the family's dysfunctional, alcoholic single father, William H. Macy gives an Emmy-nominated performance in Shameless. He also wrote and directed a few episodes. Most notably, Macy is Oscar-nominated for his supporting turn as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He also won two Emmys — both as an actor and screenwriter — for 2003's Door to Door. Macy's other film credits include Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Room, Jurassic Park III, The Cooler, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Mystery Men, Seabiscuit, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Sessions, Pleasantville, Psycho (1998), Air Force One, Ghosts of Mississippi, Spartan, The Lincoln Lawyer, and Happy, Texas.

Additionally, on television, William H. Macy's other notable credits include ER, Sports Night, Frasier, and Law & Order. Also, Macy wrote, directed, produced, and acted in 2014's Rudderless. He also helmed 2017's The Layover and Krystal. Furthermore, Macy narrated PBS's Curious George. At the moment, the actor's next project is unknown.

Emmy Rossum (Fiona Gallagher)

In the role of Fiona Gallagher, the eldest Gallagher child who often needed to take care of her rambunctious siblings (and her undependable father), Emmy Rossum played a main character in the first nine seasons of Showtime's Shameless. In addition to starring in this show, the actress directed a couple of episodes. Outside of Shameless, Rossum is known for her lead role in 2004's The Phantom of the Opera, for which she was Golden Globe-nominated. Her other film credits include Mystic River, The Day After Tomorrow, Poseidon, Dragonball Evolution, Beautiful Creatures, Comet (which she also produced), A Futile and Stupid Gesture, Songcatcher, and Cold Pursuit. Additionally, Rossum made guest appearances in As the World Turns, The Practice, and Mr. Robot.

Outside of acting, Emmy Rossum also directed episodes of TNT's Animal Kingdom and Amazon Prime's Modern Love. Additionally, she released two albums, 2007's Inside Out and 2013's Sentimental Journey, as well as 2007's EP, Carol of the Bells. Next, Rossum plays the lead role in Peacock's new limited series, Angelyne, which she'll also produce.

Justin Chatwin (Steve Wilton/Jimmy Lishman)

As Steve Wilton, i.e. Jimmy Lishman, i.e. "Jack," Justin Chatwin played a mysterious love interest for Fiona Gallagher in Shameless. Away from this series, Chatwin is known for playing Goku in Dragonball Evolution and Nick Powell in The Invisible. His other notable film credits include War of the Worlds, The Chumscrubber, Taking Lives, Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, Josie and the Pussycats, Bang Bang Baby, Urge, CHIPS, No Stranger Than Love, One Night, The Scent of Rain and Lightning, and The Assassin's Code. Also, on TV, Chatwin appears in Weeds, Traffic, Orphan Black, American Gothic, Doctor Who, Smallville, and Lost. Currently, the actor stars in Netflix's Another Life.

Next, Justin Chatwin will be seen in Die in a Gunfight and Boneyard Canteen. He'll also reprise his role as Erik Wallace in the second season of Another Life.

Cameron Monaghan (Ian Gallagher)

Playing the part of Ian Gallagher, the resilient but unstable third oldest Gallagher child, Cameron Monaghan plays a troubled personality in Showtime's Shameless. Outside of this series, Monaghan is known for his recurring roles as Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, i.e. the twins who forge Joker's origins, in Fox's Gotham. Additionally, Monaghan played Tom Fairfax in PBS's short-lived series, Mercy Street. The actor's other television credits include Malcolm in the Middle, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Criminal Minds, NCIS, The Mentalist, Monk, and Numb3rs.

Additionally, on the big screen, Cameron Monaghan can be seen in Click, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Safe Harbor, Vampire Academy, Amityville: The Awakening, The Giver, Prom, and The Year of Spectacular Men. Furthermore, the actor played Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. As a voice actor, meanwhile, Monaghan is heard in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Reign of the Superman. Currently, Monaghan is lending his voice to My Love Affair with Marriage. Next, Monaghan is attached to the upcoming thriller, The White Devil.

Ethan Cutkosky (Carl Gallagher)

In the role of Carl Gallagher, the second youngest Gallagher child, Ethan Cutkosky was a main character throughout all eleven seasons of Shameless. Outside of this series, Cutkosky is known for playing a prominent part in The Unborn. His other film credits include Conviction and Fred Claus. Additionally, the actor can be seen in Vic Mensa Feat. Pusha T's "OMG" music video. This year, Cutkosky reprised his role as Henry Mesner — a character he first played in a 2013 guest spot — on Law & Order: SVU. Also, the actor guest-starred in Starz's Power. Next, Cutkosky appears in Alex/October.

Shanola Hampton (Veronica “V” Fisher)

As Veronica "V" Fisher, Fiona's best pal and the Gallaghers' friendly neighbor, Shanola Hampton plays a reliable supporting character in Shameless. She also directed an episode in the show's final season. Her other TV credits include Related, Miami Medical, Stalker, Reba, Popular, Criminal Minds, and Scrubs. Additionally, Hampton can be seen in films like You Again, Suburban Gothic, Forever, and Things Never Said.

Most recently, Shanola Hampton starred in Netflix's Deadly Illusions, which she also produced. Also, this past fall, the actress made a notable guest appearance in The Eric Andre Show's most recent season. She was cast in the lead role of NBC's Night School, but the pilot wasn't picked up. Hampton's next project hasn't been announced yet.

Steve Howey (Kevin “Kev” Ball)

Playing the part of Kevin Ball, i.e. "Kev," the Gallaghers' neighbor and the bartender at Frank's favorite pub, Steve Howey is a main cast member in Shameless. Most notably, the actor is known for playing Van Montgomery on Reba. His other TV credits include Ctrl, Sons of Anarchy, ER, The Drew Carey Show, Psych, New Girl, Sons of Anarchy, Workaholics, Law & Order: SVU, and Dead to Me.

Additionally, on the big screen, Steve Howey appears in movies like Something Borrowed, DOA: Dead or Alive, Still Waiting ..., Stan Helsing, Wrong Cops, Game Over Man!, See You in Valhalla, Bride Wars, Unleashed, Making Babies, Supercross, Love on the Run, and Stuber. Next, the actor will be seen in Netflix's vampire comedy, Day Shift.

Emma Kenney (Debbie Gallagher)

In the role of Debbie Gallagher, the third youngest Gallagher child, Emma Kenney was a mature character who became impulsive and self-centered as the series continued. Away from this series, Kenney was a main character on ABC's Roseanne as Harris Conner-Healy. Now, the actress plays the part in the spin-off series, The Conners. Kenney can also be seen in HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Additionally, her film credits include Robert the Bruce, Bittersweet, Day Camp, and Back to Lyla. Furthermore, the former child actress can be heard in Blue Sky Studios' Epic.

Next, Emma Kenney will appear in Growing Up Gorman. She'll also lend her voice to My Love Affair with Marriage.

Jeremy Allen White (Philip “Lip” Gallagher)

As Philip "Lip" Gallagher, the second-eldest Gallagher child, Jeremy Allen White plays a smart (if not always considerate) character in Shameless. Away from this series, White appeared in Homecoming, Law & Order, Conviction, and Law & Order: SVU. In film, meanwhile, White can be seen in Twelve, Rob the Mob, Movie 43, Bad Turn Worse, Beautiful Ohio, The Speed of Life, Afterschool, After Everything, and The Time Being. Additionally, White starred in, wrote, and produced 2008's short film, The Fourth.

Most recently, Jeremy Allen White appeared in The Rental and Vienna and the Fantomes. Next, the actor will be seen in The Birthday Cake and You Can't Win.

Noel Fisher (Mickey Milkovich)

Playing the part of Mickey Milkovich, the intense (and often violent) older brother of Mandy Milkovich, Noel Fisher is a recurring presence in Shameless. He was one of the main characters in Seasons 3 through 5, as well as 10 through 11, while also being a familiar face throughout the other seasons. Outside of this series, Fisher's notable film and TV credits include playing Cael Malloy in FX's The Riches, Ellison "Cotton Top" Mounts in The History Channel's Hatfields & McCoys, Vladimir in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2, and Michaelangelo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) and its sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

Additionally, Noel Fisher can be seen in shows like Castle Rock, Fear the Walking Dead, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, The Pacific, Law & Order: SVU, and Bones. Also, the actor's other film credits include Final Destination 2, Freddy Got Fingered, Max Keeble's Big Move, and Battle Los Angeles. Most recently, Fisher appeared in Capone and ABC's The Conners. His next project hasn't been announced.

Christian Isaiah (Liam Gallagher)

In the role of Liam Gallagher, the youngest Gallagher child, Christian Isaiah became a main character on Shameless during its extended run. Away from this series, Isaiah plays Young Phil Saunders in Borrasca. His other TV credits include Married, Reel Kids, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Teachers, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., and Action Nat and the Cat. In film, additionally, Isaiah appears in 21 Bridges, Induced Effect, and Dead Women Walking. His next project hasn't been announced.

Kate Miner (Tami Tamietti)

As Tami Tamietti, Lip's romantic partner and the mother of his child, Kate Miner became a main character in Shameless starting in Season 9. Outside of this series, Miner played lead roles in NBC's Persons Unknown and USA Network's Necessary Roughness, respectively. Her other TV credits include Two and a Half Men, Scandal, Hellcats, CSI: Miami, Ugly Betty, Drake & Josh, Malcolm in the Middle, Boston Public, ER, Hart of Dixie, Life in Pieces, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Grey's Anatomy. Also, the actress appears in The Campaign, Fifty Shades of Black, Deviant Love, Fired Up!, and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Her next project hasn't been announced.

Joan Cusack (Sheila Jackson)

In the role of Sheila Jackson, Frank's former love interest, Joan Cusack won an Emmy for her work in Showtime's Shameless. While her performance is one of the show's most acclaimed, she exited the series after Season 5. An Oscar-nominated actress for her supporting turns as Cyn in Working Girl, and Emily Montgomery in In & Out, Cusack is also well-known for her voice work as Jessie in Toy Story 2, 3, and 4. Additionally, her other film roles include School of Rock, Addams Family Values, Nine Months, Grosse Point Blank, Runaway Bride, High Fidelity, Friends with Money, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The End of the Tour, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Let It Snow.

Additionally, on television, Joan Cusack appeared in Saturday Night Live, What About Joan?, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. The actress was also the narrator of Peep and the Big Wide World, for which she was Emmy-nominated. Most recently, Cusack was seen in Amazon Prime's Homecoming. Her next project hasn't been announced.

Shameless is airing its final season on Showtime.

What Smallville did for Superman, Gotham, in many ways, did the for Batman - even if Commissioner Gordon’s origin story was just as, if not more, important than that of Bruce Wayne’s heroic evolution. The series, which ran for five seasons on Fox, also made comic book stars out of its exceptional cast (including Donal Logue, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Robin Lord Taylor, to name a few) and, for some, it would not be the last time.

In fact, for many members of the cast, Gotham was not even their first taste of… well, Gotham or any other fictional city in the DC Universe or other comic book continuities. Of course, the variety that has defined their careers before and after landing a part in the Batman prequel series should also not go unnoticed.

In fact, I intend to take a deeper look into the filmographies of the hit TV show’s most famous faces and find out what is next in store for them. Let’s see what the following 13 Gotham stars have been up to since its 2019 series finale, starting with an actor who got to play one of Batman’s most famous supporting allies, but as the star of the show this time.

Ben McKenzie (James Gordon)

Before playing Gotham’s future commissioner, Ben McKenzie’s debut cop role was on Southland alongside Regina King and The Walking Dead’s Michael Cudlitz, but it was playing troubled teen Ryan Atwood on The O.C. that made him a star. The now 42-year-old Texan (who actually got to play Batman in a 2011 animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s Year One miniseries) has since graduated to playing an FBI agent in Amazon Prime’s The Report, and a terrorist who has it out for a cop, played by The Dark Knight’s Aaron Eckhart, in 2019’s Line of Duty. He's also raising a child with his former Gotham co-star and now wife, Morena Baccarin.

Morena Baccarin (Leslie Tompkins)

Like their Gotham characters (but with far less on-and-off tragedy), Ben McKenzie found love with his Gotham co-star (despite previously meeting on The O.C.) Morena Baccarin - who earned her Geek Goddess status from Firefly, and the feature-length sequel Serenity. She's also played other DC characters in live action series (The Flash), or animated films (DCAU’s Talia Al Ghul), eventually playing Deadpool’s girlfriend, Vanessa. The Brazilian-born beauty played the wife of another comic book movie star, 300’s Gerard Butler, in the 2020 disaster flick Greenland, and will play the lead of the upcoming sci-fi series Home Invasion.

Donal Logue (Harvey Bullock)

We go from Jim Gordon’s partner-in-life to his corrupt partner on Gotham’s police force, played by Donal Logue - a talented character actor whose various credits include cinematic favorites like Jerry Maguire, sitcoms like Grounded for Life, crime dramas like Sons of Anarchy, and fellow comic book adaptations such as Ghost Rider from 2007, and 1998’s Blade. His first cop roles after Harvey Bullock were a sheriff on the Peacock original series Departure, and a P.I. on Stumptown (also based on a graphic novel series), and he also will play a police chief in the highly anticipated reboot of the Resident Evil movie franchise.

David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne)

Of course, we cannot forget who the show is also about: Gotham’s Dark Knight, played by David Mazouz - who previously played another young hero (but with psychic powers) in the short-lived Fox series Touch, also starring Kiefer Sutherland as his widowed father. The now 20-year-old actor will once again star as the younger version of an orphaned central “hero,” opposite the likes of Ewan McGregor and Aldis Hodge, in the upcoming crime thriller The Birthday Cake, which is now in post-production.

Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth)

At least Bruce Wayne could find a father figure in his family’s live-in servant, Alfred - played on Gotham by Sean Pertwee, who has not only appeared in all kinds of other nerdy things (like sci-fi horror Event Horizon, modern-day Sherlock Holmes retelling Elementary, and video games franchises like Assassin’s Creed), but is also the son of the third actor to play the title role of Doctor Who, Jon Pertwee. The 56-year-old has reunited with Dog Soldiers director Neil Marshall for 2021 period horror flick The Reckoning and stars opposite Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams in the darkly comic British crime series Two Weeks to Live.

Erin Richards (Barbara Kean)

Another UK-born Gotham star (although you wouldn’t know from the show) is Erin Richards, who plays Jim Gordon’s on-and-off criminal ex-fiancée Barbara Kean, and also directed a Season 5 episode of the series after making her own short film, Hot Girl, in 2018. The Welsh actress also directed an episode of the short-lived CBS drama God Friended Me in 2020 and, as for work in front of the camera, will star in a Covid-19 era romance, Grey Elephant, and is now filming a drama, with the plot currently under wraps (although it sounds like it could, too, be a Covid-19 era flick), called Save the Cinema.

Jessica Lucas (Tabitha Galavan)

Another former lover of Barbara Kean is her partner in crime Tabitha Galavan, otherwise known as Tigress, whom Jessica Lucas (of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Melrose Place, and 2013’s Evil Dead fame) portrayed on Gotham until the character's death in the Season 5 premiere. The underrated Scream Queen went on to lead her own crime procedural, The Murders, filmed in her home country of Canada, and is joining the cast of medical drama The Resident. There is no word on if she will be involved in the upcoming direct sequel to Cloverfield, but, considering, we never witnessed her demise in the 2008 found footage hit, it is entirely possible.

Camren Bicondova (Selina Kyle)

Tabitha Galavan also served as a mentor to the young woman who would one day become Catwoman on Gotham - the breakout role of Camren Bicondova (before Banshee star Lili Simmons took over the part for the flash forward finale), whose dancing skills had previously earned her an uncredited spot on Disney Channel’s Shake It Up, and a small part in the film Battlefield America in 2012. The 21-year-old talent is also an active supporter of various philanthropic causes, such as the NOH8 Campaign, and recently starred in and produced the dramatic short film 3 Days Closer, in 2020.

Robin Lord Taylor (Oswald Cobblepot)

Short films, along with a recurring role on the hit Netflix exclusive thriller You, and a small, but memorably interesting, appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, are among the more recent projects for Robin Lord Taylor - who received much acclaim for his performance as the criminal who would one day take on Batman as the Penguin, Oswald Cobblepot. Also known for playing a character aptly named A.D.D. in the 2006 college comedy Accepted, the now 42-year-old will next be seen in director James Franco’s 1940s period piece The Long Home, and his crime drama 10-13, written and directed by former Gotham and Dexter star David Zayas, is now in pre-production.

Jada Pinkett Smith (Fish Mooney)

Seeing Jada Pinkett Smith (life partner to Will) play Maria “Fish” Mooney, a ruthless criminal completely original to Gotham (following her lead role on short-lived medical drama Hawthorne), was a pleasant surprise, considering her big screen stardom from Scream 2, Michael Mann’s Collateral, and lending her voice to Gloria the Hippo in the Madagascar franchise. The host of Red Table Talk (a Facebook Watch exclusive talk show she hosts with her daughter and mother) has since appeared as an FBI agent in Angel Has Fallen and will reprise her role as Niobe in the highly anticipated fourth installment of The Matrix movies - now in post-production.

Cory Michael Smith (Edward Nygma)

As for another classic Batman villain, Cory Michael Smith gave one riddling performance on Gotham as Edward Nygma - his screen acting debut before appearing films like Academy Award-nominated Carol, Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, and the 2018 LGBTQ+ period tragedy 1985, which he also produced. Outside of his starring role on the short-lived Amazon Prime original series Utopia, the actor has since returned to his theater roots (sort of) by participating in virtual performances of stage plays, such as a reading of Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue from One Night in Miami scribe Kemp Powers, from February to April 2021.

Maggie Geha (Ivy Pepper)

The Riddler is not the only Batman villain known for wearing green, it's also the signature color for Gotham's Poison Ivy, as played by 2004's Miss Vermont Teen USA, Maggie Geha, in the third and fourth seasons. The redheaded model and former All My Children actress would later the join the cast of the Netflix original sitcom Mr. Iglesias and is set for a role in Mel Rodriguez III's upcoming comedy Benny's Lament, for which she is, unsurprisingly, currently credited as "Femme Fatale."

Cameron Monaghan (Jerome Valeska)

Most Gotham fans, however, would argue that the series' most dazzling interpretation of an iconic DC baddie is Cameron Monaghan's Jerome Valeska - who is not necessarily, but pretty much is, The Joker. The talented 27-year-old's other most identifiable roles are Ian Gallagher on Showtime's Shameless and Cal Kestis in the video game Star Wars: Fallen Order, but be sure to look out for him in the upcoming horror film The White Devil, the action thriller Wake, and the horror crime thriller Deliberation.

Even though he was never explicitly referred to as The Joker on Gotham, some consider Cameron Monaghan's role as their favorite version of the Clown Prince of Crime. Although that was, unfortunately, not always the case for the series' other reinterpretations of classic characters, it is hard to argue against the belief that the cast of the Batman prequel made quite an impact on the world of DC. Wherever there are further updates to find regarding this hit TV series' legacy, CinemaBlend will be there.

With nearly 400 episodes (and counting!) on CBS, NCIS is undoubtedly one of the most popular, prominent shows in the station's long history. Since its premiere back in 2003, the action police procedural series has welcomed several bright, talented actors into its ever-growing cast list. Sure enough, there are many future celebrities who had their humble beginnings on the show, while a few other hard-working actors made brief guest appearances on the show before they moved on to their own projects. Looking back on all the actors and actresses who've graced the small screen with this show, it is an astonishing line-up. Now, we're here to list only 13 famous actors you might've forgotten were once featured on this popular network TV series.

Melora Hardin (Erin Toner)

Before she became Jan Levinson in The Office, Trudy Monk in Monk, or received an Emmy nomination for her performance as Tammy Cashman in Transparent, Melora Hardin played Erin Toner in a 2003 episode of NCIS titled "The Curse." A villainous character from the CBS' show's first season, Toner was a character who would flaunt her beauty and use her connections to commit a series of crimes during her brief run on the popular series. It was a standout role that likely paved the way for her strong television work shortly thereafter. In addition to the shows mentioned above, Hardin has recently been seen in A Million Little Things and The Bold Type, to name only her two most recent television credits.

Jim Rash (Dr. Joel Sanderson)

Before he turned into an Oscar-winning screenwriter for The Descendants, the co-director of The Way Way Back and this year's Downhill, and became the scene-stealing Dean Craig Pelton in NBC's Community, Jim Rash was an actor/comedian who appeared in several smaller roles in film and TV, and that includes his 2004 role of NCIS, where he played Dr. Joel Sanderson. In the episode, titled "Left For Dead," Rash didn't have a huge presence, and it's probably amusingly strange to see such a prominent performer in such a minor role in this popular TV series. Alas, he's one of several performers who climbed up the ladder in Hollywood, and it was certainly a big break to get even a small role in this prominent network series.

Dean Norris (Gunnery Sergeant Vestman)

Before his acclaimed turn as Hank Schrader in Breaking Bad turned the actor into a household name, Dean Norris worked consistently as a character actor, with a memorable appearance in the original Total Recall once serving as his most notable role. In 2004, a few years before Breaking Bad would air its pilot on AMC, Norris played Gunnery Sergeant Vestman in the first season of NCIS. It was a commendable role for the hard-working actor, but it is easy to see why some folks might've forgotten about this early-in-the-game appearance from Norris. Nevertheless, Norris has continued to bounce between movies and TV, notably with roles in Under the Dome, Claws, The Big Bang Theory, Scandal, The Book of Henry, Death Wish (2018), Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, and a recent reprisal of his role as Hank Schrader in Better Call Saul.

Zac Efron (Daniel Austin)

In 2006, the same year that he would become a superstar with Disney Channel's High School Musical, Zac Efron made a guest star appearance on NCIS in an episode titled "Deception." He played the part of Daniel Austin, a teenage boy who bought a phone from a Navy Commander. Certainly, it was a minor role compared to his leading man part in the Disney Channel movie, and it's especially slight compared to how big his profile got shortly after this episode aired. Since NCIS, Efron starred in two more High School Musical movies, Hairspray, The Greatest Showman, The Beach Bum, 17 Again, Me & Orson Welles, Neighbors, Baywatch, and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. He'll next be heard as Fred in the new movie, Scoob!

Jesse Plemons (Jason Geckler)

Funny enough, Zac Efron wasn't the only future star who appeared in the NCIS episode "Deception." If you watch this installment of the prolonged series, you'll also find an early appearance from Jesse Plemons, the rising film/TV actor best known for his versatile work in Breaking Bad, Fargo Season 2, Game Night, Vice, The Irishman, and several other titles. In this Season 3 episode, Plemons plays Jason Geckler, the teenager who gave Daniel, i.e. Efron's character, the cell phone. Similar to Efron, Plemons only played a minor role in this NCIS episode, but it was another TV credit that helped the talent actor rise in growing fame. Next, Plemons will be seen in Antlers, Jungle Cruise, I'm Thinking About Ending Things, and The Power of the Dog.

Sterling K. Brown (Elijah Banner)

Before he won Emmys for playing Christopher Darden in FX's American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson and Randall Pearson in NBC's This Is Us, Sterling K. Brown was a hard-working actor who appeared in a number of movies and shows. One of his early credits includes a 2013 episode of NCIS titled "Devil's Triad." In the part of Elijah Banner, Brown played a dark role in the popular series, as a character who leads a few characters to their untimely demises. His stay on NCIS didn't last long, but this appearance came only a couple years before he would find fame with his aforementioned award-winning roles. Since NCIS, Brown has notably been seen in Black Panther and last year's Waves. Additionally, Brown has appeared in Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He also starred in The Rhythm Section earlier this year and lent his voice to Frozen II.

Millie Bobby Brown (Rachel Barnes)

Before she became one of the youngest Emmy nominees ever through her celebrated performance as Eleven on Netflix's Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown was a child actor who made appearances in a variety of TV shows, including Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Modern Family, and Grey's Anatomy. One of Brown's earliest credits was on NCIS. In the 2014 episode, titled "Parental Guidance Suggested," Brown played Rachel Barnes, a young girl who is later revealed to be the person responsible for killing her psychiatrist mother. That's a dark turn for a young performer, though the precocious talent proved herself in this early television appearance. It'd only be a couple years later when Netflix premiered Stranger Things, thus paving the way for Brown to star in last year's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the upcoming Godzilla Vs. Kong and Enola Holmes, which she also produced.

Glen Powell (Marine Sergeant Evan Westcott)

Before he'd become a heartthrob through performances in Everybody Wants Some!!, Hidden Figures, Scream Queens, Set It Up, and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick, Powell was an up-and-coming actor splitting his time between movies and TV. One such show was NCIS, where Powell played Marine Sergeant Evan Westcott, the son of marine captain George Westcott, in the two-part NCIS episode, "Shell Shock Part 1" and "Shell Shock Part 2." Appearing in these two episodes in 2012, the same year he also starred in The Dark Knight Rises, these appearances helped to build the actor's growing portfolio. Since his time on NCIS, in addition to the movies mentioned above, Powell has also starred in Ride Along 2, The Expendables 3, and Netflix's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Cameron Monaghan (Nick Peyton)

Before he became Jeremiah Valeska, i.e. an iteration of The Joker, in Fox's Gotham, and the same year that the up-and-coming TV actor would break out by playing Ian Gallagher in Showtime's long-running Shameless, Cameron Monaghan appeared in a 2011 episode of NCIS where he played the role of Nick Peyton, a teenager suspected of murdering his father. The episode, titled "Out of the Frying Pan," gave young Monaghan a fine chance to show his growing talents on a major network show. Sure enough, while it was only a limited appearance, the actor made the most of his time on NCIS, continuing to prove himself as a performer — even from a young age. Since NCIS, Monaghan has bounced between film, television and video games, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, The Giver, Mercy Street, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, among others.

Eric Stonestreet (Harvey Ames)

On Modern Family, Eric Stonestreet finally got his big break playing the part of Cameron Tucker. The two-time Emmy-winning actor appeared in several films and TV shows before he finally got this major role, and that includes an appearance in a 2008 episode of NCIS titled "Silent Night." He played the part of Harvey Ames, a security guard who finds a bunch of victims in his tracks before he's arrested. Though this role was more dramatic than what many viewers might expect from the comedic performer, it does showcase his tremendous range. Since appearing on NCIS, in addition to his time on Modern Family, Stonestreet has also starred in the first season of American Horror Story, Monk, Identity Thief, Bad Teacher, and The Secret Life of Pets 1 & 2.

Rico Rodriguez (Travis Buckley)

Speaking of Modern Family, the same year that Rico Rodriguez became known as Manny to viewers nationwide in that award-winning hit ABC series, the young TV actor also made a guest appearance on a 2009 episode of NCIS titled "Hide And Seek." In the role of Travis Buckley, Rodriguez did not have a major role in the episode, though the child actor was soon set to become a household name when this episode aired on television. 2009 was a big year for the young actor, as it paved the way for the role that he would play for 10 more seasons on the popular ABC mockumentary sitcom. Before he starred on NCIS or Modern Family, Rodriguez also appeared on ER, Nip/Tuck, My Name Is Earl, and Cory in the House, to name only a few credits.

Zoey Deutch (Lauren)

Everyone gets their start somewhere. When it comes to the beginning of Zoey Deutch's career as a professional actress, the future Set It Up/Before I Fall actress first appeared in an episode of NCIS titled "One Last Score." As a character known solely as Lauren, Deutch's appearance in NCIS is a limited one; the beginning, she plays a girl who discovers a cadaver. But it got the ball rolling on her acting career. Later on, she'd fill her resume with The Suite Life on Deck, The Amazing Spider-Man, Dirty Grandpa, Everybody Wants Some!!, Why Him?, Flower, The Year of Spectacular Men, The Politician, Zombieland: Double Tap, and most recently, Buffaloed, which Deutch also produced. Hopefully, she'll have a long, continuously promising career ahead of her.

Jaleel White (Martin Thomas)

Unlike the other names on this list, Jaleel White didn't find his fame after his appearance on NCIS. Rather, White was already a well-established actor and voice actor by the time he stepped on the set of NCIS. He was most famous for playing Steve Urkel in Family Matters, and his voice was instantly recognizable to many fans of Sonic the Hedgehog. But when he appeared in "A Desperate Man" in the role of Martin Thomas, viewers were forgiven if they didn't recognize the performer. It's an understated and nuanced performance, which might be different than what people might be used to seeing from White as an actor. Nevertheless, this brief-but-strong role on NCIS gave the TV actor another chance to showcase his dynamic, overlooked range.

Which NCIS appearance from a future superstar surprised you the most? Let us know in the comment section!

Since Disney has started to make live-action revamps of their classic animated canon a huge going concern, fans have been more than eager to lend a hand in terms of casting who should play the flesh and blood versions of characters like their incarnation of Hercules.

That specific example has come up because recently a random fan of Cameron Monaghan suggested that he should be the zero to hero success story, should the Mouse House ever put pen to paper and do a real world remake. And wouldn’t you know it, Cameron Monaghan himself approves of this casting, and has done so with the tweet you see below:

While Monaghan, the former “Joker” of TV’s Gotham, as well as an alum of Showtime’s popular dramedy Shameless, isn’t the person to originate this fledgling rumor, his approval and retweeting of this sentiment is sure to give it the boost that it needs to go viral.

This, of course, means that any moment now, you’re bound to see some sort of fan art depicting Cameron Monaghan beating up a Hydra or bickering with a live-action depiction of Danny DeVito as his centaur mentor Phil. And let’s just get one thing straight, if we eventually get a live-action Hercules, DeVito has to at least be offered his original role again. It’s natural law, and the fans will have nothing less.

Interestingly enough, this talk comes not too long after New York’s Public Theater ran their musical adaptation of Hercules for a limited run, with young actor Jelani Alladin playing the role of Herc in that capacity. So the talks about who should play the Greek hero might heat up a bit on the internet, as there’s sure to be plenty of fans from Alladin’s performance countering this tide in his name.

As it stands, Cameron Monaghan’s fans are falling in line with his Twitter post hypothetically accepting the role of Hercules’ charming lead. Without an official announcement of a live-action adaptation, this only really means something to the fans that are vocal that he be the one to lead the cast.

Then again, since Disney has no plans to stop their live-action gravy train any time soon, maybe this is the spark they need to start planning a brand new adaptation of the heroic efforts of Hercules in ancient Rome. If the studio does indeed begin to explore this prospect, it’s certainly nice to have a pretty marketable and fan approved name to start the ball rolling on the entire enterprise.

While Hercules may not be in the cards just yet, you can still get plenty of live-action remake excitement from Disney in the near future! Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’s October 18th release marks the next theatrical dose available to fans of the studio, with The Lion King hitting physical home video on October 22nd, and Disney+’s first original film being the remake of Lady and The Tramp hitting on November 12th.

Shameless’ Mickey and Ian will have a “challenging” time together in Season 10, according to the show’s stars. The characters enjoyed a happy reunion in Season 9, as part of Ian’s exit story. Cameron Monaghan departed the veteran dramedy, the same season his co-star Emmy Rossum left the series. Ian’s exit saw him head off to prison. The bright side?

It was revealed that his cellmate would be his then-ex-boyfriend, Mickey. The two were shown making the most out of their newly reunited status. At the time, that was sort of the end of their story, although Ian briefly returned in the Season 9 finale.

Now, Cameron Monaghan is heading back full-time, and Ian and Mickey’s relationship will be explored even further. How is their romance going to fare when Shameless returns? Noel Fisher, who will return as Mickey, shed some light on how things are between Mickey and Ian in Season 10, telling EW:

It sounds like Shameless is going to take Ian and Mickey on quite a journey. Ian and Mickey have always had their share of roller coaster rides. Having to navigate their relationship while in prison is just another issue that they will have had to make it through.

Ian and Mickey are not just in the same prison. They are cellmates. That's a living situation that makes it super hard for the on-again/off-again couple to have any private time. That lack of space is going to play into their dynamic in Shameless Season 10, according to Cameron Monaghan. Of Mickey and Ian’s current living situation, Monaghan said:

Quick! Hide the shivs! Well, this does not sound like the most assuring update on Ian and Mickey’s relationship. Fans of the couple will undoubtedly be hoping they can make it through the turbulence to come. Hopefully, neither will get violent with the other. Cameron Monaghan’s tease does not sound too promising on that front.

If they can make their relationship work in the brutal world of prison, they should be able to make it anywhere. Getting to that point may be tricky for the fan-favorite couple. Not only do Ian and Mickey have to worry about surviving prison, but they also have to deal with the usual struggles a romance endures.

Shameless’ tenth season will see a lot more of one character and a whole lot more of Ian and Mickey. The show gave Ian the happy conclusion of being cellmates with Mickey. Now the reality of spending so much time together is going to set in. Can they survive it?

Their relationship tracks back all the way to the first season of Shameless. They keep coming back to one another for a reason. Will that be enough for them to make it through Season 10 with their relationship still intact? Stay tuned.

Shameless’ Season 10 premieres November 3 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime, making the dramedy one of many shows returning this fall.

Cameron Monaghan may be best known for his roles on television shows like Shameless and Gotham, but this fall he is hopping to a different medium for a story set in a galaxy far, far away. The actor stars in the new video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from developer Respawn Entertainment and publisher EA. The game will follow Cameron Monaghan’s Cal Kestis in a fascinating period in the Star Wars timeline, unexplored by the Saga films.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order slots in to the canon timeline of the Saga films between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, according to Business Insider. Along with the 30-year gap between Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this 19-year gap represents one of the most intriguing time periods in the galaxy that fans want to see explored.

After the fall of the Republic in Revenge of the Sith, the Empire spread, tightening its grip over the galaxy while the first sparks of rebellion began to form, eventually leading to the events in the film timeline of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and A New Hope.

We've seen some of this period in the aforementioned Rogue One, as well as Solo: A Star Wars Story and other canon stories outside of the movies, but 19 years is a long time and a lot can happen. This is the time period that will be further fleshed out in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and it sounds like the game will be set closer to Episode III than Episode IV.

Cameron Monaghan stars as Cal Kestis, a Jedi Knight who, like Kanan Jarrus from Star Wars Rebels, an animated series also set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, survived Order 66. How he managed to escape the slaughter is unclear, but Cal Kestis will be on the run from the Empire in the game and he will start out on the new planet called Bracca.

The reveal trailer for the game came at Star Wars Celebration back in April and it teased a story where Cameron Monaghan’s Cal Kestis is on the run, unable to trust anyone or anything but the Force as the Empire hunts him and those like him, hoping to stamp out all dissent and any threats for good. It’s that paranoia and bleakness that makes this part of the Star Wars timeline so interesting, and it will be cool to see it explored.

Cal Kestis may be one of the few Jedi Knights left post-Order 66, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be fighting alone. Like most Star Wars stories, he’ll interact with a motley crew of characters, including the adorable droid BD-1 and Saw Gerrera from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rogue One. You can see Forest Whitaker reprising his role as Saw in the Fallen Order gameplay demo revealed at E3 in the video below:

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks to be a gorgeous and cinematic new exploration of the galaxy far, far away in a cool time period we can’t get enough of. The game releases on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC on November 15.

That’s just part of a great end of the year for Star Wars fans because The Mandalorian arrives with the launch of Disney+ on November 12 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker blasts into theaters on December 20. Request your days off accordingly and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest headlines from a galaxy far, far away.

Warning: Some broad spoilers for SPOILERS for all nine seasons of Shameless to follow!

Shameless: characterized by or showing a lack of shame: immodest; audacious; insensible to disgrace. There is no better adjective than that to describe the characters of Showtime’s appropriately titled series Shameless. Based on a British series of the same name, John Wells’ long-running dramedy features some of the most despicable, selfish and lovable characters on television.

Over the course of 9 seasons and more than 100 episodes, the Shameless characters have behaved abhorrently, committed more crimes than you could count, self-destructed in spectacular fashion, hurt those closest to them and innocent bystanders in equal measure and generally sucked at life, all while feeling little to no shame for their actions.

They say one bad apple spoils the bunch, but the Shameless characters are all bad apples. That said, some of those bad apples are more rotten and exhibit less shame than the rest. This is not necessarily who deserves the most jail time, who has hurt the most people or who has caused the most damage measured in dollars and cents, although that may overlap, this is about the degrees to which the Shameless characters live up to the show’s title by being completely and utterly shameless.

Here are the Shameless characters, ranked from least to most shameless.

Liam Gallagher (Christian Isaiah)

It makes sense the least shameless character on Shameless is the character that has done the fewest shameful things. The majority of the series, the youngest Gallagher was a near-mute toddler played by twins Brendon and Brandon Sims. He usually just suffered from or was an accomplice to the screw-ups and schemes of his family members. Once Liam Gallagher was recast with actor Christian Isaiah in Season 8, the character took on a bigger role and followed in his family’s footsteps, to a point.

The highly intelligent Liam bribes a classmate to protect him from a bully by doing his schoolwork for him. Liam also gets a kick out of some of his siblings’ and father’s shenanigans, but he does sometimes feel shame and embarrassment over their actions. When Frank wants to use Liam’s private school connections to rob his friends’ families, Liam feels embarrassed and ultimately tricks Frank, almost resulting in Frank’s arrest.

Veronica “V” Fisher (Shanola Hampton)

Shanola Hampton’s Veronica Fisher is easily one of the most levelheaded characters on Shameless and probably the one with the most common sense. Like the rest of the Shameless characters though, V is not above engaging in behavior most people would be ashamed of. She helped the Gallaghers temporarily steal an old lady from a nursing home, she passed off her two children as one at a prestigious preschool and used her dominatrix talents to help Carl get a West Point recommendation. Oh yeah, and she had Kevin have sex with her mom in a drastic surrogacy measure.

Although V is generally very confident in her actions, she does feel shame. She truly cares about Kevin; however, he is the source of frequent embarrassment for her. Because she cares, she feels shame when there are problems at The Alibi Room and when she makes real mistakes, like trusting Svetlana, or when she is having trouble taking care of her family.

Phillip “Lip” Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White)

Lip Gallagher is simultaneously one of the most likable and most frustrating of the Shameless characters. Easily the smartest of the Gallagher clan, Jeremy Allen White’s Lip is a constant screw-up who has done some truly shameful stuff over the years. Lip Gallagher truly doesn’t care what people think about him and he wears that ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude like a badge of honor.

This pessimist has slept with his professor and gotten kicked out of college and often uses his smarts to make a quick buck through questionable means. Lip often gets into trouble, including physical altercations, in a seeming desire to self-destruct. But Phillip Gallagher sometimes does give a shit and his sensitivity and pain is what has driven this alcoholic to the bottle so many times. He does feel shame at some of his decisions and how his life has turned out, making him far from the most shameless character in Shameless.

Fiona Gallagher (Emmy Rossum)

Emmy Rossum’s Fiona Gallagher is, along with William H. Macy’s Frank, the main character on Shameless, at least before her exit from the series at the end of Season 9. She is a tough character to rank because she vacillates from being devastated, embarrassed and ashamed at her actions and their consequences, like letting Liam get into her coke, to basically not giving a damn. She is often the glue that holds the Gallagher family together and more than any other character in the series, she has tried to improve herself and work toward a better life.

However, her tough South Side upbringing has made her a fighter and as such she is fairly shameless when she screws up, which happens often. When Fiona is irresponsible, cheats in her relationships or goes on one of many benders, she is often unwilling to accept help or criticism from those around her. In that way, she shares some of the same shamelessness as her father Frank.

Kevin Ball (Steve Howey)

Kevin Ball is an odd character on Shameless because, unlike so many of the other characters, he generally doesn’t ever do anything particularly awful. So you might think that would put him further down the list with someone like Liam Gallagher, but shamelessness is the key on this list and Kevin Ball feels almost no shame for anything he does, whether he should or not.

That’s part of the beauty of Steve Howey’s Kevin, he’s lovable and clueless, a big-hearted family man who always tries to do the right thing. He is shameless though in things others would be red in the face over. This is a guy who sold weed out of an ice cream truck, slept with his mother-in-law and started a topless maid service with graphic depictions of his wife and girlfriend on the broad side of a van. And he felt no shame for any of it. Kevin Ball did, however, feel quite bad for throwing Frank off a bridge.

Ian Gallagher (Cameron Monaghan)

Whether it’s Gotham or Shameless, Cameron Monaghan often plays particularly troubled characters. His Ian Gallagher is quite difficult to place because a lot of his behavior stems from the fact that he suffers from Bipolar Disorder. Regardless, of the reasoning behind it, Ian Gallagher is fairly shameless in many of his actions. Near the beginning of the series, he used Lip’s name to enlist in the military, only to later go AWOL.

Ian has plenty of public sex, using his body as a cash machine in reckless fashion. Later in the series, Ian becomes a gay rights advocate called ‘Gay Jesus’ and he advances his message through dangerous and criminal means, resulting in his imprisonment. A lot of the time Ian isn’t particularly aware of the consequences or optics of his actions and is pretty shameless about them, often seeming to feel bad about himself generally than about what he actually does. When he does realize what he’s doing, it hits him hard.

Carl Gallagher (Ethan Cutkosky)

Ethan Cutkosky’s Carl Gallagher is the Bart Simpson of the Shameless universe, the kid in your neighborhood growing up who was always in trouble and always the most fun to hang out with. Although he possesses real kindness and love for his family, even saving their home at one point, for the most part Carl is a troublemaker and a thug with no shame in his game.

A lot of Carl Gallagher’s shamelessness stems from the fact that he is kind of an idiot. So, when he deals drugs from a young age and enlists his slow nephew Chuckie to help him, or when he sells guns in school, or almost murders someone or goes to juvie on purpose, he is too dumb and full of adolescent bravado to feel any shame. Ethan Cutkosky’s character has turned over a new leaf in recent seasons, but Carl Gallagher’s shamelessness is a big part of what makes him one of the most entertaining characters on Shameless.

Debbie Gallagher (Emma Kenney)

Debbie Gallagher is often considered the most dislikable of the main Shameless characters and that has a lot to do with her complete lack of self-awareness and how utterly shameless she is about her reprehensible actions. Emma Kenney’s character date raped a guy to lose her virginity, tricked another dude into getting her pregnant to trap him and took advantage of a disabled man, using him for his money and as a babysitter.

Debbie Gallagher has also stolen strollers, stolen a baby, dropped her own and generally been an entitled brat. She is one of the most shameless characters on Shameless because she always thinks she is right, refusing to acknowledge her own mistakes and rarely showing any remorse for her actions. Debbie Gallagher has started to evolve into a more responsible character in the most recent season, but she still lives up to the show’s title and is the heir apparent to the most shameless character on Shameless.

Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy)

The rest of these rankings are debatable, but of this there could be no doubt, William H. Macy’s Frank Gallagher is the most shameless Shameless character and perhaps the most shameless character on television and maybe in all of fiction. There are no depths Frank Gallagher won’t stoop to and nothing he won’t do and he will never feel bad or ashamed about any of it. Frank Gallagher is a narcissist, a charlatan, a deadbeat and a scumbag, concerned only with his own self-interest -- which primarily extends to where and how he is going to get his next drink.

It is only through the brilliance of William H. Macy’s performance that this lowlife is entertaining and not infuriating to watch. His crimes are too myriad to enumerate entirely, but this is a character that has faked disabilities, supported a pedophile for local office, leveraged his kid in a gambling debt, ruined his daughter’s wedding, participated in a demeaning hobo competition, failed to support his children in any way and has destroyed one liver and is working on his second. Because he is purely driven by his own self-interest, Frank Gallagher felt no shame for any of that. Shame, embarrassment and remorse simply aren’t in his nature as shamelessness is his defining trait, making him the most shameless character on Shameless.

There you have it, the shameless characters of Showtime’s Shameless, largely bad people distinguished only by their varying degrees of insufficient shame. Reading out all their crimes you might not want to hang out with them in real life, but the show does a remarkable job of investing you in the struggle and journey’s of these deeply flawed characters as they do their best to get by.

Shameless returns for Season 10 later this year, although the cast has changed with Fiona's exit. For now, take a look at our schedule to see what's hitting TV and streaming this summer.

Mild spoilers below for Gotham's series finale, among other things, so be sure you're all caught up.

In closing out its final season, Gotham launched viewers to the point in Gotham City's future when Bruce Wayne finally returned to his crime-ridden home turf in full Dark Knight glory. Of course, the episode held its focus on all the other colorful and iconic characters that have populated Gotham throughout its five seasons, granting Jim Gordon, Barbara Kean, Oswald Cobblepot, Ed Nygma and others a fond comic-book-infused farewell. But could these characters return in our future one day?

The #1 hope, of course, is for another network or studio to hurry up and pick up where Gotham left off, but even if it takes time, there are feasible ways to jump back into Gotham's story. It's not likely that every single cast member would be able to pick back up where their characters left off, but CinemaBlend asked a handful of stars, including Cameron Monaghan, if they would be down to return. Let's run through their answers.

Cameron Monaghan - Jeremiah / J / The Joker

Of all the elements that made Gotham such a blazing romp, its greatest weapon was the sporadically utilized Cameron Monaghan, who inspired increasingly Joker-esque pandemonium as both Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, as well as the finale's Mr. J. Oker. (Not the actual character name, but wouldn't that be a hoot.) Thinking about Gotham returning in the future without Monaghan's sadistic villain – or even just his laugh – is a bummer, so it's a good thing we don't need to do that.

CinemaBlend spoke with Cameron Monaghan for this year's Television Critics Association winter press tour, which took place ahead of the finale's airing, but after the principal photography was shot. The actor was very pumped for fans to get a load of Jeremiah's final turn, and I had to ask if he would be interested in reprising Gotham's version of The Joker in the future. His response:

The last time we got to see Cameron Monaghan's Joker was in his first face-off against Bruce Wayne's Batman, although it was a severely short-lived one. The scarred-up J took a Batarang through the hand, and then one to the top of the dome, which knocked him clean out, though it definitely didn't kill him.

Considering the finale was viewers's big introduction to the post-Arkham Jeremiah, it would make total sense for his next appearance to head down a different creative route. Assuming the next Gotham project would get to feature more of Batman, that would automatically change the writers' approach to weaving a Joker storyline into it. And I'd love to see it, if someone can just make it happen. Someone?

Ben McKenzie - Commissioner Jim Gordon

If there was a load-bearing character on Gotham, it would definitely be Ben McKenzie's Jim Gordon, as close to a working-class superhero as there is. The fact that the finale even hinted at him trying to quit the GCPD was surprising, given the character's legacy, but the story obviously worked itself out in Gotham City's favor. Even if he had to shave to make it happen.

I also got to talk to Ben McKenzie during TCA, where we talked about him facing fellow former teen hunk Shane West as Bane. McKenzie is a pragmatic actor who loved his time on Gotham, even if he didn't flip out with excitement over Batman's arrival. But would he return to play Jim Gordon again someday? His answer:

Three different shows that might seemingly have three very different fan demographics, too. Ben McKenzie starred in both the teen drama The O.C. and the non-comic cop drama Southland before hanging his hat in Gotham City, and I've no doubt that fans of both of those shows would love to see them get revived in some form or fashion.

Regardless of any of that, though, Ben McKenzie sounds like he'd be willing to slick his hair back anew to lead the GCPD against whatever dangerous threats lie over the horizon. Just imagine if the newest recruit on the squad was his Southland character Ben Sherman, and if Joker's newest henchman was The O.C.'s Ryan Atwell.

Robin Lord Taylor - Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin

After five seasons of watching Robin Lord Taylor committing some Penguin-lite acts as Oswald Cobblepot, Gotham fans were introduced to the most genuine iteration of The Penguin that TV has seen since Burgess Meredith waddled around for the 60's Batman series. The penultimate episode injured his eye to set up the monocle, and a rough decade in Arkham Asylum led to his weight gain and heightened levels of frustrated anger.

I got to talk to Robin Lord Taylor on the phone just ahead of the finale's airing, and he seemed to still be riding that one-of-a-kind Gotham high, championing the work he got to do alongside Cory Michael Smith as Ed Nygma. When I asked Taylor if he would ever want to get uncomfortable in The Penguin's signature garb again in the future, he was down, but only if his co-stars were making the return with him.

As great as Oswald and Ed were in Gotham's first 99 episodes, seeing them in pure Penguin 'n' Riddler glory was a gloriously batty punctuation mark on the series' run. (A question mark, of course.) Any follow-up version of Gotham would be severely lacking if Taylor's Oswald and Smith's Ed were absent. However, Robin Lord Taylor wouldn't begrudge another team picking up where the Fox drama left off. In his words:

Again, it should be stated that any future Gotham-y project that doesn't have Robin Lord Taylor's Penguin and Cory Michael Smith's Riddler is not the ideal iteration of that project. So other decisions should probably be made. Soon.

David Mazouz - Bruce Wayne / The Dark Knight

David Mazouz's potential to return to Gotham's universe would a little trickier than what would happen for the others. As viewers witnessed – or didn't witness, as it were – Mazouz's Bruce Wayne was completely absent from the series finale, which wasn't announced ahead of time like Camren Bicondova's absence was. (She was replaced as Selina by Lily Simmons.) That was, of course, due to the actor's young age not exactly matching up with Bruce's for the finale's flash-forward.

As such, I didn't directly ask him about reprising Bruce Wayne for a future Gotham project, I did ask if he'd be down to play Batman on the big screen. His answer did not take long to formulate.

While that probably won't happen either, assuming that new Batman movie doesn't get postponed for more years on end, David Mazouz did have some pretty sweet advice for whatever actor does take on the role of Bruce Wayne in the future.

All that said, David Mazouz spoke so highly of his experience on Gotham, especially in the final season, that he would very likely return for more small screen vigilantism should anyone come calling. Now, someone, start calling!

Gotham is over on Fox now, but there's always the hope for more in the future. While waiting for Season 5 to hit streaming, you can watch the first four seasons on Netflix, while Hulu is still hosting the final five episodes of the series.

Gotham spent five seasons earning itself the honor as arguably the most wonderfully bonkers and original superhero series on television, but the era of Gotham has come to an end. The Fox show's series finale airs April 25 and is tasked with both tying up loose ends and setting the stage for the Bat-adventure to get into gear, even if that adventure will take place off-screen.

Sadly, the stars of Gotham will leave their characters behind barring the very unlikely announcement of a sequel series or surprise Season 6. Several of the actors who made Gotham as much fun as it became spoke with CinemaBlend about the end and what they'll miss the most.

David Mazouz

Back when Gotham premiered in 2014, David Mazouz was a 13-year-old kid tasked with played the young version of the man who would become one of the most iconic superheroes in the history of the genre. At the time, it was difficult to say how he would be able to handle Bruce Wayne in the long run or even if he would hit the right growth spurts to make it believable that he would become Batman.

Well, David Mazouz wasted no time in proving that he could deliver nuance as Bruce Wayne and action as the future Batman, and the series finale gave Mazouz the opportunity to wear the cowl as the Dark Knight despite the episode jumping ten years into the future. The time jump resulted in a recast Selina Kyla; Mazouz stayed on to play the older version of his character. Speaking with CinemaBlend's Nick Venable at the 2019 winter TCA panels, Mazouz said this about moving on from Gotham:

There's really no denying that Gotham is immensely creative. Not only was it a very original take on telling the origin story of Batman and his city as it was when he felt the need to don the cape and the cowl; it also evolved as time went on. What began as something akin to a police procedural that just so happened to feature some extra crazy criminals with iconic comic book names turned into something unpredictable, dramatic, hilarious, and completely unique.

David Mazouz shared what he considers the show's greatest accomplishment, and fans all over will undoubtedly agree with him. He also revealed his feelings looking back at the show and what it pulled off over the years:

In a perfect world, whatever David Mazouz does next would involve playing Bruce Wayne in the next stage of his life, and I feel like there are going to be blanks in the timeline between the end of the game-changing penultimate episode and the series finale that could totally use a sequel series. Fans can always dream, right? Mazouz did say he'd be game to play Batman again in the future.

Ben McKenzie

Gotham may have been the origin story for Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, but the real main character of the series was always Jim Gordon. The soldier-turned-cop started out as somebody unwilling to bend in his principles, developed into somebody who understood that protecting and serving in Gotham City meant breaking the rules sometimes, and reached the point where he would just acknowledge Riddler tricks as something in Gotham that you kinda just get used to.

Actor Ben McKenzie crafted a Jim Gordon different from others that have made it to the big and small screen before, and not just because he didn't wear the iconic Jim Gordon mustache, with only a couple of exceptions (one of which will be in the finale). Here's what he'll miss about Gotham:

Ben McKenzie is going to miss the cast, especially Donal Logue, who spent five years more or less by his side as Harvey Bullock. Many cops circulated in and out of the GCPD throughout the five seasons, but Jim and Harvey always came back to each other. As McKenzie says, though, at least he doesn't have to miss Morena Baccarin, who played Lee Thompkins! McKenzie and Baccarin married in real life back in 2017.

Cameron Monaghan

Who could have guessed back in Season 1 that guest star Cameron Monaghan would go on to play not one but two of Gotham's most iconic villains? He was the show's perfect candidate to become the Joker from the moment that he first cackled his terrifyingly perfect laugh as Jerome Valeska, and he only got better when Jerome's secret twin brother Jeremiah was transformed into the new Valeska villain.

Jeremiah got just about everything but the Joker name in Season 5, including the dip in the glowing green vat at Ace Chemicals after a fight with Bruce Wayne. And that wasn't even his last go at playing a Joker-esque baddie! Cameron Monaghan had a different point of view on the end of the show than both David Mazouz and Ben McKenzie, saying this:

Will Jeremiah ever get the official "Joker" name before the finale credits roll? Only the April 25 finale will tell for sure. Whether he does or not, however, I think Cameron Monaghan deserves to be ranked among the best of the best all-time portrayers of the Clown Prince of Crime. That said, Monaghan did reveal that there's one thing he won't miss about playing Jeremiah Valeska: the makeup process.

Gotham's makeup team may be great, but hours in the makeup chair weren't what made Gotham special to Cameron Monaghan. Hey, at least he had time to enjoy some Martin Scorsese classics. Not many people can say they got to do that on the job!

Robin Lord Taylor

Last but certainly not least, Robin Lord Taylor chatted with CinemaBlend ahead of the series finale to share his thoughts on the series, including about what happened to Edward the Dog after the pooch's semi-cliffhanger ending in the penultimate episode. As Penguin, Taylor rose from the lowly status as Fish Mooney's umbrella boy to criminal kingpin of Gotham City, although not without his fair share of entertaining setbacks.

As for what Robin Lord Taylor will miss most about Gotham, his feelings echo those of Ben McKenzie's:

Robin Lord Taylor will also miss the people he worked with over the years on Gotham, and he too gave a special mention of his frequent on-screen enthusiastic partner/mortal enemy/reluctant ally, depending on the season. Taylor and Cory Michael Smith as Penguin and Riddler put the "fun" in dysfunctional, and it's only fitting that both bad guys got snazzy suit upgrades for the grand finale. Would Gotham's finale really feel right if Penguin and Riddler weren't causing trouble side-by-side once more?

Find out exactly what kind of trouble they cause for Jim Gordon and Co. (including, finally, Batman) when Gotham's series finale airs on Thursday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Jeremiah will be back in the mix somehow, and Selina will look very different, so it is certainly not an episode to be missed.

He has left Showtime’s Shameless, and Fox’s Gotham is in the midst of its final season. What is Cameron Monaghan doing next? Well, the Gotham star has a follow-up that is giving him a chance to play his Star Wars dream role! His dream is coming true via the upcoming single-player video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

First, some insight into the game’s storyline. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will follow Cameron Monaghan’s character, Cal Kestis. Cal is a Padawan who survived the Empire’s Order 66, which led to the near extinction of the Jedi. Monaghan opened up about the role during the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. At the panel, Monaghan discussed the character (via THR), saying:

Cal sounds like a character with considerable depth. His journey should be an intense one, so game players should feel the pressure. It is worth noting that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is not multi-player. Based on his comments, Cameron Monaghan seems to have approached his performance for the game as he would any other role.

The actor’s excitement continued onto Instagram. That is where Cameron Monaghan shared an awesome screenshot of his character, Cal Ketsis. In a total Star Wars move, Cal’s face is aglow with the recognizable vibrancy of a lightsaber. Check it out below:

Getting to this point has been a work in progress, as Cameron Monaghan’s caption reveals. In it, he shares that he has been working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for six months. That is dedication! For Gotham fans, it is quite the change.

They recently saw the actor take on his most Joker-laden look yet. Now, they can get a great glimpse of him taking on his Star Wars dream role. Cameron Monaghan is not the only one offering insight on it. Speaking about Monaghan’s part in the upcoming video game, game director Stig Asmussen said:

Now all that is left for fans to do is wait for its release. Curious to see where Cameron Monaghan’s Star Wars will take him? Enough of the wait then. Here is the trailer for the game, which features Monaghan’s voiceover. Check it out below:

Now you have an even better understanding of what to expect regarding Cameron Monaghan’s Star Wars transformation. I think the trailer is filled with a lot of exciting moments. It also seems like there will be no shortage of action and adventure for players to enjoy.

You can play Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order when the video game drops November 15. You will not have to wait as long to see Cameron Monaghan in the final episodes of Gotham. The series will return Thursday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET. The series finale airs April 25 at the same time and place.

Eek! Ack! OMG! Orp! (That last one might not be a real exclamation.) With just two episodes left in its final season, which are still some weeks away, Gotham has at last invited everyone to have a face-to-face introduction with the final stage of Cameron Monaghan's villainous magnum opus. Without any further ado, let us all welcome a man called J. (Seems short for something, but I just can't think of what it could be.)

First things first, the teaser kicks off with a shot of the iconic Wayne Tower, which is as good a sign as any that this footage is coming from a point well beyond where things were left off in Season 5's tenth episode. That was when Bane came out to play and the bombs (and bat-babies) started dropping, but we're in the future now.

Then we jump to Arkham Asylum as the West Side Story ditty "I Feel Pretty" takes off, with the word "pretty" appearing over the back of Jeremiah Valeska's largely bare head, with some random strands of hair falling about. A lot of laughter can be heard in the background, but there are no smiles on Jeremiah's burned up face when the camera flips around.

He's just a dead-eyed and drooling inmate that doesn't look anything like he did before he took that fateful plunge at Ace Chemicals. And then...BLAMMO! Our first good shot of Gotham's big Joker look, even though the character may still not be called that.

It would have been a shame to only get that split-second shot, but thankfully, Gotham dropped another quick moment after the title card, in which the pasty-faced villain looks down and realizes he has a Batarang stuck in his hand. A BATARANG!

I don't know what it is about the look of shock on his face when he notices the bat-impalement, but I am so down for this performance. I'm also dying to know how in the world Jeremiah went from being a pilled-out zombie in Arkham to a street-dwelling monster. (It's possible some of those pills help with being oblivious to major body wounds.)

Gotham also unleashed an official still of its J Joker non-Jameson, seen below.

Here's how Cameron Monaghan described his character's final look to CinemaBlend whenever I spoke with him at this year's TCA winter press tour.

We know that Gotham will deliver Batman to viewers and citizens in its Season 5 finale, and now we know who will be the freaky-looking mofo that he'll be facing. Though no one should expect this Joker to get defeated or anything. After all, this is only "The Beginning..."

Gotham will return to Fox and fans on Thursday, April 18 for the penultimate episode "They Did What?" before moving onto its finale "The Beginning..." on April 25, with each episode airing at 8:00 p.m. ET.

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Spoilers ahead for Episode 7 of Gotham Season 5, called "Ace Chemicals."

Gotham has been such a wild show over its five seasons on the air that it's difficult to predict exactly what could be in store, and the most unpredictable characters of all have been those played by Cameron Monaghan. As the man behind both Valeska brothers and their various changes in personality, Monaghan has seen his characters go through plenty of Joker-esque transitions.

Well, Cameron Monaghan already revealed that he'll be transitioning into a third character before the final credits role, and he has now shared how the next version will be more realistically horrifying as he resembles The Joker more and more. Here's what he had to say to CinemaBlend's TV Editor Nick Venable at the recent TCA winter press tour:

Gotham is many things, but few would describe it as "realistic" ever since perhaps the first few episodes. Judging by Cameron Monaghan's comments in combination with what went down in "Ace Chemicals," a somewhat grounded third character is a bit of a surprise. After all, Jeremiah wasn't looking at the top of his game by the end of the episode. That's no fault of his own, though. How many people would look fetching after falling into a vat of glowing green chemicals?

Admittedly, falling into the vat of green chemicals at Ace Chemicals was very much his fault. It was the result of a confrontation between Jeremiah and Bruce that was a long time coming, even before Jeremiah sprung his elaborate and psychotic trap for the future Batman. In a scene that was just about as exact an adaptation from a scene in the legendary Killing Joke origin story for the Clown Prince of Crime as possible, Jeremiah and Bruce fought on a catwalk in Ace Chemicals.

Bruce seemed to gain the upper hand on Jeremiah, which was no surprise. Sure, he's still a teenager a growth spurt or two away from being ready for the cape and the cowl, but he had plenty of motivation to want to beat the stuffing out of Jeremiah by the end of "Ace Chemicals." Jeremiah orchestrated a reenactment of the night Bruce's parents had been murdered in Crime Alley, complete with using the Mad Hatter to hypnotize a couple of Thomas and Martha Wayne lookalikes as well as Alfred.

Jeremiah proceeded to blow up Wayne Manor, lure Bruce to the theater where he'd spent his last evening with his parents, murder the Wayne lookalikes, and hold Jim and Lee at gunpoint, all to torture Bruce in the attempt to forge an unbreakable bond between them. Fortunately, Selina intervened in time to spare Jim and Lee the same fates as the Wayne lookalikes, but Bruce had still lost his childhood home and seen his beloved butler seriously injured in the escape. So, pretty mad at Jeremiah!

Still, Bruce held himself back enough that Jeremiah gained the upper hand, even as Bruce declared that Jeremiah was nothing to him. Alas for Jeremiah (but awesomely for fans who have watched Gotham build to this moment), the railing of the catwalk had been weakened by their throwdown, and it gave way underneath him, plunging him down into the vat of chemicals. Although he was fished out, it was not before his body was physically warped beyond recognition, and brain scans revealed that there was nothing left of Jeremiah in his mind.

Or so it seems at this point, anyway. Cameron Monaghan said this about his characters being killed off:

Cameron Monaghan's characters have a knack for returning from seemingly hopeless fates, and I'm guessing that Jeremiah will at least be somewhat back by the end of the series. Perhaps the "somewhat grounded" part of the next transition has to do with his physical transformation. He had to be irreparably burned by the chemicals, so however he's back, he can't look the same.

Honestly, the way "Ace Chemicals" went down adds points in favor of my theory about how Jeremiah can become THE Joker despite all the variables that could have ruled him out as Batman's future nemesis. After all, could Jeremiah really be both Bruce's nemesis and Batman's without connecting the two? My bet at this point is that the chemical bath only wiped Jeremiah's brain clean-ish.

Maybe the chemicals more warped his mind than wiped it. The specifics may be confused, and he may see his past as "multiple choice," just as The Joker did in The Killing Joke. Perhaps he'll feel the need to connect to somebody or something in Gotham but has no reason to focus on Bruce. When Batman emerges in a decade or so, he could be the mysterious figure Jeremiah -- now The Joker -- would naturally latch onto.

Jeremiah went to extraordinary lengths to make himself an essential part of Bruce Wayne by violence once Bruce refused to be his best friend; couldn't The Joker do the same when Batman emerges? Admittedly, there are still problems with this theory. Assuming Jeremiah still looks like he did after being dunked in the chemicals, why wouldn't Bruce recognize the cackling newcomer as Jeremiah rather than a mysterious baddie only to be known as The Joker?

We can only wait and see. The fifth and final season of Gotham airs new episodes on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. There's no saying when Jeremiah -- or what is left of him -- will be back, but another once-dead character will be back as a bad guy sooner rather than later.

Spoiler warning for anyone who isn't yet caught up with Gotham's fifth and final season.

For years, Gotham has given fans an abundance of Joker-esque storylines and character beats, but mostly without the ability to directly reference the comic character’s mythos. That’s definitely meant to change in the upcoming episode “Ace Chemicals,” whose iconic title location is central to many versions of The Joker’s origins. The episode's trailer teases potentially big transitions on the way, and Cameron Monaghan talked excitedly with CinemaBlend at TCA about Gotham being able to break ground with such a Joker-tastic setting.

Ace Chemicals was first introduced in 1951 (Detective Comics #168), in the Bill Finger storyline that first gave Joker his Red Hood backstory. Gotham has already run through a couple of Red Hood appearances that weren't tied to Cameron Monaghan's Valeska brothers, so it's clear the Fox drama won't be rekindling that arc with Jeremiah.

While we have yet to learn whether or not "Ace Chemicals" will be the inciting location for Jeremiah's transcendent rise to super-villainy, we can safely assume that the episode will truly set the stage for him to become Bruce Wayne's worst nightmare and lifelong nemesis.

Both "Pena Dura" and "13 Stitches" ended with Jeremiah setting the dust-ridden Wayne Manor up for a truly horrific trip down memory lane. First, he seemed to have either resurrected Thomas and Wayne Martha, or found a way to clone them, and then he kidnapped Alfred. Here, Cameron Monaghan talks about Jeremiah burrowing his way into Bruce's psyche, Joker-style.

The extended "Chemical Green" trailer, seen lower, makes it more abundantly clear that Jeremiah is going to somehow make Bruce re-experience the day his parents were killed. And it doesn't look like this will merely be a hallucinatory experience similar to what Bruce went through in the past. Jeremiah wants things to be all too real.

While it isn't clear yet how the episode will make the leap from the Waynes' final hours to the Ace Chemicals plant – nor how Jeremiah apparently becomes Zorro at one point – it IS clear that big things are going to go down inside the facility. Not only with Jeremiah and Bruce, but also the Mad Hatter, who'll be making his rhyme-time return. His presence does make one curious just what is being concocted in those giant vats.

What fans really want to know, though, is what would happen if someone fell down into that green gunk. If either Bruce or Jeremiah does take an acid bath, the fall will likely be a relief after the extended brawl that will go down. Here, Cameron Monaghan tells a story relaying how physically strenuous it was filming parts of that sequence.

Batman-related films and TV shows don't ever really get into the awkward details of Bruce Wayne having to function while being completely worn out and overheated. Even a billionaire vigilante can fall victim to an upset stomach after long brawls with killer sadists.

I also got to chat with Gotham's David Mazouz during TCA, and the actor was absolutely just as enthusiastic about "Ace Chemicals" as Cameron Monaghan was. Here, Mazouz further explains the purpose behind Jeremiah's most appallingly sinister act yet.

If there's anyone out there who can personify their hate in a way that goes farther than Jeremiah's tactics, that's not the person I want as a future employer. (Or as a lover, or an adopted parent, or most other things.)

For everyone who needs an extra Bat-flavored tease about where "Ace Chemicals" will take these characters, here's what else David Mazouz had to say about the episode.

What does that mean for Bruce and Jeremiah as far as Gotham's final episodes go? Will this indeed pave the way for whatever new character Cameron Monaghan is playing post-Jeremiah? What does it mean for anyone else in Gotham? For viewers, it means another wild and trippy ride from the most bizarrely nuanced drama currently airing, which is all we could hope for. Check out the green-band trailer below.

Gotham will continue zipping through its final season every Thursday night on Fox at 8:00 p.m. ET, with "Ace Chemicals" airing on February 21.

Back in Gotham’s first season, no one could have possibly predicted all the ways Cameron Monaghan would be used to flesh out the show's bizarrely unique Joker origin story. As both Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, Monaghan quickly and undisputedly entered the “greatest Joker of all time” conversation. Speaking with the actor at this year’s TCA winter press tour, I asked how he felt about becoming a key addition to the Joker pantheon and earning comparisons to past Joker portrayers. In his words:

In person, Cameron Monaghan doesn't exactly look like a person who could flip a switch and become one of the most gleefully sadistic characters to ever hit the small screen. He doesn’t necessarily look like he’d even watch Gotham. But put some makeup and purple pinstripes on him, and suddenly he’s the most dangerous man in any room.

Such masterful performances mean Cameron Monaghan will likely go the rest of his career fielding Joker-related questions and hearing fans compare his role on Gotham to Heath Ledger’s portrayal in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight or Jack Nicholson’s killer clown in Tim Burton’s Batman, among others. Thankfully, those kinds of comparisons are fully appreciated by Monaghan, who has also shown off his acting chops on Showtime’s Shameless.

It’s already been reported that Gotham is taking a leap into the future with its series finale airing in April, and Cameron Monaghan said filming that episode took him right back to pretending to be The Joker when he was young.

It’s almost impossible not to be jealous hearing Cameron Monaghan talk about how much fun he had playing his porto-Joker characters. I probably wouldn’t land a Joker role in a small town’s stage production, much less a network TV show, but I was certainly inspired to set up an audition.

Everyone’s tastes will vary when it comes to Monaghan’s performances compared to Joker actors of years past. But I’d certainly place him above, say, Jared Leto in Suicide Squad and Cesar Romero in the ‘60s Batman TV show. I’d also put Jeremiah and Jerome a notch higher than Jack Nicholson’s villainous turn. I’m not sure I could safely rank him higher than Heath Ledger or Batman: The Animated Series’ Mark Hamill, but maybe by the end of Season 5…

During our chat, I asked if Cameron Monaghan if he would be interested in taking another villainous role in something after having played this part in each of Gotham’s five seasons.

At that point, I immediately started thinking about Cameron Monaghan playing a completely different kind of Travis Bickle in a Taxi Driver update, or Cape Fear’s Max Cady. And now I’m picturing him in each of Gary Oldman’s wicked roles in Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Christopher Walken’s beastliness in King of New York. Or, you know, a role that hasn’t already been played before.

Indeed, Cameron Monaghan doesn’t just want to settle into easy roles that lead to typecasting. He’s got different ideas in mind.

Anyone who has watched any of Cameron Monaghan’s Gotham episodes would almost definitely agree that the actor has shown off tremendous range as both Jerome and Jeremiah, despite the fact that the two brothers have quite a bit of madness in common. He can go from quiet and deviously contemplative to loud and boisterous in a single moment, and can be both scary and disturbingly fragile at the same time.

The next episode, “13 Stitches,” will see characters working together to keep Gotham City free from the not-so-virtuous Eduardo “Not Quite Bane Yet” Dorrance and the other Delta Force soldiers. Jim Gordon’s life will get more hectic, with Lee making a surprise return and Barbara dropping some kind of shocking news. Elsewhere, Penguin will be working with Selina to take down Sarah Schenkkan’s villain Magpie. No sign of Jeremiah or Ecco in that synopsis, but he’s bound to be lurking somewhere.

Though Gotham was a repeat this week, you can find new episodes returning to Fox on Thursday, February 14, at 8:00 p.m. ET, and our midseason premiere schedule will clue viewers in on all the big new and returning shows that are on the way.

Cameron Monaghan has looked fairly dapper more recently on Fox’s Gotham as he’s taken on more of the suits and gloves that fans know and love the actual Joker for. However, don’t be impressed. If you think it’s fun to run around in a dapper suit on the set of the long-running series, you’d be very incorrect. Monaghan revealed in a recent interview that they are actually kind of gross, noting,

So, a lack of cleaning is certainly a little gross, but Cameron Monaghan didn’t stop there in his interview with Metro. In fact, he got pretty detail about a time when his co-star David Mazouz, who plays Bruce Wayne in the series, actually got too hot and threw up while filming with Monaghan. Yet, they kept having to film takes in their costumes afterward. He said:

While Shazam may have 10 million dollar suits at his disposal, it looks like Cameron Monoghan doesn’t have more than a couple regular suits to work in and those get very sweaty. (Apparently, sometimes they even get vomit-y.)

On the bright side, Gotham finished filming on its final season back in mid-December, so at this point wearing suits during Season 5 should be a distant memory, albeit a pretty foul one. Originally the final season was only expected to air for 10 episodes, but Fox ended up signing on for 12 to wrap the story up in a way that made sense.

So, even though filming has wrapped, we’ll be seeing more from the Gotham cast in the weeks to come. Which is good, because the absolutely bonkers way that Gotham featured Selina stabbing Jeremiah Valeska during the last episode leaves many questions to be answered, especially since we’ve heard a “proto Joker” will be on the way.

For now, Gotham airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m., only on Fox. Although it may be hard to see the show’s costumes in the same light, now we know what rigors the cast has put them through.

If Gotham were to introduce a five-headed octopus as one of its main antagonists in Season 5, fans probably wouldn't blink too hard at it, all things considered. However, lots of heads may get scratched now that Cameron Monaghan has revealed he'll be playing a character in Season 5 that isn't Jerome or Jeremiah. That's right, a THIRD character! Here's what the actor had to say when asked which Valeska brother was more fun to play.

Break out your detective hats, people. Then throw them away, because I doubt it will take all that long to figure out where Gotham is heading with Cameron Monghan.

If Gotham's Jeremiah arc is going where everyone assumes it is, Cameron Monaghan might just start dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight for the Season 5 finale. Meaning, of course, that The Joker may officially arrive in Gotham City after all this waiting and hoping and hollering.

To be expected, Cameron Monaghan can't just come right out and say who or what it is that he'll be portraying for Gotham's final episode, but he did confirm that fans don't need to worry about crossing paths with any additional hidden-until-now lookalike siblings. Here's how he put it to EW.

Jeremiah didn't show up in Gotham's Season 5 premiere, which was a huge bummer, but his second-tier anarchist Ecco left a sign for Jim Gordon proving the cackling maniac is absolutely still within Gotham City, waiting for the ideal moment to spring forth anew. But without him around to possibly give away clues through dialogue, it's hard to know where things are heading.

The extended Season 5 trailer, as well as the episode titles, unearthed a pretty gigantic hint, however. One episode will be titled "Ace Chemicals," which is the iconic business where Bruce and Jeremiah have a face-off in the recent promo. As DC fans know, Ace Chemicals plays a pretty important role in The Joker's origin story, so I really hope the show doesn't just sidestep that aspect entirely.

Cameron's third character might NOT be The Joker, of course, since Gotham has gone this long without introducing the Clown Prince already. Plus, there are several episodes between "Ace Chemicals" and the series finale, so I'm not sure how or why Jeremiah's Joker would stay dormant in the interim.

There are obviously other reasons why Cameron Monaghan's late-stage performance may be as someone other than The Joker, but the actor did say that DC freed up the reins for Gotham in Season 5. Admitting that the show wasn't previously able to even say "The Joker," due to rights issues and things, Monaghan explained the changes as such:

As it has previously been revealed, Gotham's series finale will take place ten years in the future, where we'll get to see the much more comic-friendly versions of characters like Penguin and Riddler. Plus, that'll be the episode where Bruce Wayne's Batman will finally come to life in this universe. So with all these other fully established entities announced, it's unlikely Gotham will bypass a big Joker introduction, even if Monaghan can't talk about it yet.

Is everyone ready to discover what Cameron Monaghan is talking about? In the meantime, we'll have to keep watching Gotham every Thursday night on Fox at 8:00 p.m. ET, not to mention all the other great shows coming in the early months of 2019.

Gotham is only weeks away from returning for its fifth (and sadly, final) season, and the new episodes promise to deliver a whole bunch of bad guys wreaking havoc in No Man's Land. Jeremiah promises to be one of those baddies, so we can count on hearing more of Cameron Monaghan's delightfully maniacal laughter that he perfected as the Valeska brothers. Now, Monaghan has shared an image that manages to troll Joker fans while also almost certainly getting everybody all the more excited about Season 5. Take a look!

I'm not the only one who thinks Jeremiah looks like he just blew a kiss at somebody, right? Frankly, for a character that folks at Gotham have refused to confirm as the Clown Prince of Crime, Jeremiah has never looked more Joker-esque than he does in this image. He's got the white face, the green hair, the outfit, and even what appears to be a flower pinned to his jacket. Something tells me that the good people of Gotham City shouldn't get too close to that flower!

As if the whole look for Jeremiah wasn't enough, Cameron Monaghan was sure to include a caption on his Instagram post sure to drive Joker fans wild. Does "Jokes on you" explicitly state that Jeremiah is THE Joker? No, and I wouldn't necessarily expect Gotham to ever explicitly name him The Joker. Still, it's a sign that Cameron Monaghan enjoys teasing the fandom and/or Jeremiah will be getting even more Joker-esque in Season 5.

It already looks like he'll be getting a Gotham version of Harley Quinn in the form of what seems to be Ecco with a whole new look of her own, and the Season 4 finale included a couple of twists that were pure Killing Joke. Was all of this leading up to Jeremiah's final transformation into The Joker as DC Comics fans have come to know, love, and despise him? It would certainly go with my theory that Jeremiah is going to pull a Jason Todd on one of the people closest to Bruce.

Footage of Season 5 that we've seen so far points toward Jeremiah having a notable impact on No Man's Land, although it's difficult to say at this point if he'll mostly interact with one group of heroes or the other. It has been confirmed that Bane is going to do some serious damage to one of the good guys, and he's a former ally of Jim's. The mysterious new villainess seemed primed to mostly interact with Jim as well. Will Season 5 Jeremiah be primarily Bruce's antagonist?

We'll have to wait and see. The upside of Season 5 as Gotham's final is that we'll get to see the origin stories of these legendary DC Comics characters culminate, with Bruce becoming Batman and longstanding questions hopefully being answered. My fingers are crossed for Batgirl to be conceived somehow or a baby Dick Grayson to turn up, but only time will tell. Gotham will return for its final season on Thursday, January 3 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. For some additional viewing options, check out our midseason TV premiere guide.

There certainly won't be a shortage of Jokers over the next year. Not only is Warner Bros. rumored to be developing multiple Joker-centric projects, but an origin film is currently filming with Joaquin Phoenix. Over in TV land, Gotham has its own form of the Joker with Cameron Monaghan's Jeremiah. However, even with Phoenix's high-profile Joker on the way, Monaghan isn't paying much attention to the new clown on the block.

For the past few years on Gotham, Cameron Monaghan has been playing the closest version of the Joker that the show has portrayed. Monaghan plays twin brothers Jerome and Jeremiah; both have murderous, Joker-like tendencies, but are never actually called Joker on the show. Regardless, Monaghan is basically the Joker, but he's not paying too much attention to Joaquin Phoenix's take because he doesn't want to accidentally copy anything he's doing.

However, Cameron Monaghan goes on to tell IGN that Joaquin Phoenix's take on the classic character will no doubt be unique and interesting. He also thinks that it's cool that the film will be R-rated, which means that it will naturally be different than what Gotham does on a weekly basis.

Cameron Monaghan hits the nail right on the head there with how the two Jokers will be different. Gotham delights in the campy and over the top. That's its charm, and it's learned to do it pretty well over the course of its four -- soon to be five -- seasons. Joker, on the other hand, will be vastly different and incredibly serious. It's said to be in the vein of a New York City crime thriller, which is about as far as you can get from Gotham and its zombies and balloon-themed villains.

If we're going to be surrounded by Jokers, then at least they won't be the same thing. Of course, we are still left to wonder what's happening with Jared Leto's controversial take on the character, but I suppose the best way to put it is that it's in flux right now.

We've still got a long way to go before the release of Joker on October 4, 2019, but the wait for the new season of Gotham won't be that bad. The fifth and final season will hit Fox on Thursday, January 3, 2019, and will finally feature Bane and possibly Harley Quinn to the cast of characters. For more DC movies hitting theaters, here's what Warner Bros. has planned to release over the next few years.

Gotham is set to return for its fifth and final season in the not-too-distant future, and all signs point toward the showing pulling out all the stops to deliver a wild ride for the last batch of episodes. The Season 4 cliffhanger that left Gotham City as a no man's land means some degree of chaos in Season 5, and one member of the cast has now revealed that Batman himself will appear. Cameron Monaghan, a.k.a. the Valeksa brothers, shared this on Twitter:

Kudos to Cameron Monaghan for not bothering to ambiguously tease a possible appearance from Batman! Of course, this technically isn't the first time a member of the Gotham cast has indicated that Bruce Wayne will go full Dark Knight before the final credits role. Back in 2015, star Ben McKenzie stated that "the last frame of the last shot of the last scene of the last episode" will see Bruce donning the black cape to become Batman.

Plans for the series may have changed since 2015, but Cameron Monaghan's response to a fan question on Twitter points to Bruce becoming Batman in Season 5 some way or other. Bruce has actually been getting closer to the cape and the cowl in the last couple of seasons in some dramatic ways. For one, Season 4 debuted Bruce's first Batmobile, and it was just about as awesome as anybody could expect for the earliest iteration of the iconic vehicle.

The earliest version of the Bat Signal appeared in Season 4 as well, although it was distinctly lacking the bat. Throw in how much Bruce has grown (physically and mentally), developed his fighting skills, and that creepy vision from last season that gave us our first look at Batman, and it makes sense that the show will deliver the Caped Crusader by the end of Season 5. Maybe this is why the Bat-Cave is getting those updates.

My big question at this point is whether Gotham will deliver a very early version of Batman, since even after the upcoming time jump, Bruce will still be a teenager, or if Gotham will put Bruce in the cowl after a time jump of many years. Who knows? Maybe if there's a big enough jump forward, the final shot of the series featuring Bruce as Batman could also feature a Robin. Surely those Graysons got to procreating sometime after their happy ending back in Season 1!

Whether or not Bruce is in a Bat suit early in Season 5, it's probably safe to say that Gordon and the remnants of the GCPD will need all the help they can get. Bane himself will debut in the final season, among many other villains. I'm still curious to learn if the creepy-looking Man-Bat will somehow inspire Bruce to go with bats for adopting his vigilante persona.

Gotham will premiere its fifth and final season on Thursday, January 3 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

Shameless fans were already reeling from the news Emmy Rossum was exiting the program when they were hit with another bombshell regarding another actor's departure. Cameron Monaghan announced he would be exiting the series ahead of what was said to be his final episode as Ian Gallagher. Executive producer John Wells shared some background on Monaghan's departure, and whether or not there's a chance Ian Gallagher will ever appear on Shameless again.

John Wells indicated the door is always open for Cameron Monaghan to return to Shameless, and the executive producer gets why he's wanting to move on. Monaghan's spent a decade on the program, so Wells seems to understand why he would like to try something new. Monaghan's rise in star power thanks to Shameless and Gotham may make him a hot commodity in Hollywood, especially seeing as he'll be free from his acting obligation to the latter soon.

John Wells told TVline he and the Shameless crew understand the actor's concerns, which may be why they gave Ian a somewhat happy ending that could be revisited if Monaghan returned. Ian ended up serving his jail sentence for his role in blowing up a van in protest of conversion therapy, but ended up bunkmates with former boyfriend Mickey. The two shared a tender kiss that could close out Ian's story for good, or be the start of yet another one.

It feels as though it wouldn't be hard to squeeze in a couple Ian appearances in future seasons, if Cameron Monaghan is willing. The show could check in while he serves his two-year jail sentence, and follow up on how things are going between he and Mickey. This video shows they've had an up and down relationship throughout the years, so it wouldn't be surprising to learn the honeymoon was over between the two after months as bunkmates.

Another idea is that Shameless could do an episode when Ian's jail sentence is up, which would give Cameron Monaghan more time to spread his wings and get into other projects. Of course, that's reliant on Shameless remaining on television another two seasons, although the Showtime drama hasn't had a hard time staying on television thus far. It may be somewhat harder for the series to snag renewals going forward without Monaghan and Emmy Rossum keeping fans entertained, so there's really no telling what could happen next.

Shameless will return for the second half of Season 9 on Showtime Sunday, January 20. For a look at some of the major programs coming to television before then, head on over to our fall premiere guide.

Gotham's Jeremiah Valeska may not be the actual Joker, but fans have been inclined to think otherwise for Season 5, and even more so after seeing a deleted set photo. The below pic was uploaded by Alfred portrayer Sean Pertwee, and was then deleted soon after for mysterious reasons. Check it out.

Fortunately, nothing is ever truly gone from the Internet. Sean Pertwee's photo was saved for posterity, and others are now sharing a picture with the thought that it may be a possible sign of Jeremiah's transformation into a legitimate Joker in Season 5.

There's no denying it: that's a classic Joker look. The purple gloves and the striped pants cacklingly indicate Gotham's intentions to recreate the villain's ensemble. Joker has donned a lot of different outfits across multiple recreations of the villain, of course, so it's hard to pin down what version this new look is inspired by.

In all honesty, it could be a style all on its own with that touch of red mixed in there with his shirt. Unless that's somehow an homage to Joaquin Phoenix's Joker, which almost definitely isn't the case. (Unless it is, because Gotham.)

To be sure, Jeremiah's Joker look isn't worlds different from his Clown Prince-esque garb in Season 4. But what makes this photo even more interesting is the fact that it was deleted. There must be a reason Sean Pertwee took this photo down so quickly, and I'm speculating it was due to someone on the Gotham production team requesting it for security reasons.

One would imagine Pertwee wouldn't be asked to pull a fun photo like that unless the image actually revealed some sort of spoiler for the final season. That would mean seeing this costume early may tip fans off that Jeremiah is going full Joker. Perhaps an earlier episode drops a major hint like "Whoever wears a red shirt this season is definitely The Joker."

That news wouldn't be entirely surprising, especially in light of the news that Jeremiah will be getting a Harley Quinn-like girlfriend in Season 5. Gotham producers can deny Jeremiah is Joker all they want, whether it's for creative or legal reasons. They're telling a different story, however, with this picture, the character's previous actions on the show, and other small tidbits that have come up about Season 5. After all, if Jeremiah walks, talks, and acts like The Joker,...then wouldn't that make him The Joker?

Perhaps blatant confusion is the purpose behind Gotham constantly inching toward Joker territory without ever arriving. If Warner Bros. is discouraging the series from using the villain's name due to films it has in the works, the next best thing is to create a new villain who is similar in every way beyond the moniker. Still, it would be great if this is all just a bizarre front, and we finally do hear Jeremiah (or some other Cameron Monaghan character) referred to as Joker in the final season.

Fans will have to wait and see what happens, as Fox is gearing up to air the final season of Gotham in 2019. There are lots of great things coming to television ahead of its return, so be sure to visit and bookmark our fall premiere guide to see what all is on the way.

Ahead of the premiere of Shameless Season 9, star Emmy Rossum announced she would be departing the series, and it turns out that Rossum won't be the only series regular making an exit from Showtime's critically acclaimed dramedy. Gotham star Cameron Monaghan, who portrays Ian Gallagher, shared that he will also be leaving the show in surprisingly short order. Read his reasoning in the heartfelt message to fans below:

There you have it: another Gallagher will be leaving home. Fans will not have long to sift through the news of Cameron Monaghan and Ian's exit from Shameless before it is already here. Per the actor's Instagram message, the next episode of the series will be his last, so he'll no longer be on the show by next Sunday night.

Shameless' latest episode seemed to hint at a potential exit, with Ian pleading insanity in his court case. In the preview for Episode 6, Ian is wearing a yellow jumpsuit and is heard saying he's about to spend the next two years living in the tension of "fight or flight mode." But first, he wants to enjoy one last day where he feels safe, but it's unclear how he'll try and do that.

Beyond all this, Cameron Monaghan did share some potentially positive news on the outlook of a potential return to the series. Towards the end of his exit missive, the charismatic actor bids his character goodbye before posing the rhetorical question of whether they will meet again.

So, the upside to this news is that Monaghan is seemingly not ruling out ever returning to Shameless. The actor's decision comes as he is also coming up on the final season of Fox's Gotham, in which he stars as proto-Joker Jeremiah Valeska. So he'll have some free time coming up.

Suffice it to say, losing Cameron Monaghan's Ian AND Emmy Rossum's Fiona marks the beginning of a sizable adjustment for Shameless. The two characters have been integral parts of the series, and without their presence, the show is about to enter a new stage. Shameless has apparently had a lot of time to prepare for Ian's exit, though, so we know the current story unfolding is how it was all planned.

Catch Cameron Monaghan in his final (for now) episode of Shameless, the first half of Season 9 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime. The Season 9A finale airs October 21, while the second half of Season 9 premieres January 20, 2019. The Showtime dramedy is among many shows offering new episodes at the start of fall, so stay up to date!

Gotham didn't return in its usual fall premiere spot, and fans still have months until the fifth and final season hits the airwaves next year. The good news is that we're getting some looks at what's in store when the new episodes finally do debut in 2019, and a brand new picture of Jeremiah is as delightfully creepy as we could have wanted after his bonkers breakdown in Season 4. Take a look!

Now, despite the fact that fans have believed that they were getting the Joker time and time again before having their theories debunked, Cameron Monaghan's photo (as posted on Instagram) and caption of "Ha" seems positively Joker-esque. Besides, the most frequent assurances over the years were that Jerome was not the Joker, and Jeremiah delivers a whole different brand of crazy. Of course, Gotham is unlikely to spoil a huge twist about the Joker -- whether he is Jeremiah or not -- months before any new episodes debut, so we can only speculate at this time. What is absolutely safe to say at this point is that Jeremiah will be no less unsettling in Season 5.

Given all the villains who will appear in Season 5, Jeremiah may need to be more unsettling than ever if he wants to stand out! Man-Bat turned up at the end of the Season 4 finale to freak everybody out, and the show will deliver Bane as well as (probably) Bane's dad. Throw in Magpie, possibly Mutant Leader, and undoubtedly more, and the folks of Gotham who stayed in No Man's Land at the end of Season 4 are not in for an easy time, even by Gotham standards. Not wonder Bruce is going to need some expansions to the Batcave!

It should be interesting to see how far Gotham goes in turning all of these legendary Batman villains into versions of themselves that will give Bruce Wayne so much trouble once he grows up and dons the cape and the cowl. Star Ben McKenzie once stated that the last frame of the last scene of Gotham's series finale would be Bruce putting on the cape; if that's still the case, a whole lot is going to need to happen in Season 5. What better way for Bruce to take his biggest steps toward becoming Batman than by pitting him against the worst (and yet most entertaining) version of a Valeska yet?

It was recently revealed that the premiere will jump forward around three months from the end of the Season 4 finale, so we won't see Bruce, Jim, and the rest immediately in the aftermath of the No Man's Land devastation. No premiere date for Gotham Season 5 has been revealed just yet, but there are plenty of exciting options to watch now and in the not-too-distant future this fall. More superheroes will be available by the end of the month on The CW thanks to the Arrow-verse.

Gotham has been toying with the introduction of the Joker since almost the very beginning. As a show that has found a way to introduce pretty much every major villain of Batman lore before Bruce Wayne ever takes up the cape and the cowl, surely the Joker was bound to make an appearance! Well, Gotham has gone quite far in building Jeremiah Valeska as THE Joker, but the question has been whether or not the show would really go all the way. The latest trailer proves that the show will at least turn the Joker vibes up to 11, and it already looks epic. Take a look!

If any fans wondered how Jeremiah could possibly make a better Joker-esque villain than Jerome, I'd say this trailer probably delivers an answer. Where Jerome was more or less an agent of chaos that could be pointed in one direction or the other, Jeremiah is controlled in how he spreads his mayhem. Unlike Jerome, Jeremiah doesn't want to destroy. Jeremiah wants to build.

Of course, he can't build anything without having somewhere build, and it just so happens that he's looking to build in Gotham. Or at least where Gotham used to be. The trailer proves that Jeremiah wants to destroy the city so he can rebuild it, and we learned in the previous episode that he has the explosives to do it. Blowing up the clocktower (as seen in a previous trailer) was just a demonstration to Harvey and the GCPD to motivate them to evacuate Gotham within six hours!

The trailer also proves that the other villains of Gotham City aren't going to take Jeremiah's plan to level the city lightly. It's really no surprise that Penguin and Co. won't stand with Jeremiah on this one; the bad guys can't squabble over who controls the underworld if the underworld has become a no man's land. Unfortunately for the non-Jeremiah bad guys, he's not going to let anything stand in his way.

For all those Killing Joke fans who tune in to Gotham, the last two episodes of Season 4 look like they should be satisfying. Gotham appears to be substituting Bruce Wayne and Alfred in for Jim Gordon and his daughter Barbara from The Killing Joke, and the trailer already has Bruce admitting that he and Jeremiah share a dark side. Bruce just believes he's better at controlling his dark side than Jeremiah. For his part, Jeremiah believes that Bruce is the brother Jerome never was. Oh, boys.

Between what we see of Jeremiah's actions and how the show has costumed him, we have to hope that Gotham will go all the way and call Jeremiah the actual Joker. There's no guarantee of how long Gotham will last (although we're hoping for at least one more season) and it's difficult to imagine Gotham ever finding a better Joker than Jeremiah. If Bruce is coming closer to becoming Batman, the time is right for the Joker.

We'll have to wait and see. New episodes of Gotham air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. For more of what you can watch on the small screen, take a look at our rundown of important superhero TV dates and our summer TV premiere schedule.

Warning: spoilers ahead for the March 9 episode of Gotham.

Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) has finally made his triumphant return to Gotham. Now that Penguin is locked up at Arkham, he has to deal with Jerome as the king of the asylum, and Jerome hasn't exactly gotten less crazy since being incarcerated. In fact, Jerome seems more like the Joker now than ever before, although one star recently reaffirmed that Jerome is not actually the Joker. We do know that the Joker is on the way, and Cameron Monaghan spoke to CinemaBlend about why he doesn't see Jerome and the Joker as entirely separate:

Gotham has spent a couple of seasons now selling the idea that Jerome's antics at this point in the show's timeline ultimately inspire the Joker to become the Clown Prince of Crime, and Cameron Monaghan's comments indicate that Jerome will really serve as the foundation for the most legendary villain in Batman lore. Jerome as a proto-Joker has allowed Gotham to dabble in presenting a clownish madman and touching on existing Joker storylines without using the actual Joker so far. There's never any predicting what Jerome is going to do because he's an entirely original character to Gotham. Jerome may not be the Joker, but the Joker will evidently borrow some of what has made Jerome so effective on the series to date.

The good news is that Gotham will finally reveal the Joker himself sooner rather than later, and Cameron Monaghan was clear that we're in for all kinds of classic chaos when he does arrive on the scene. He had this to say about how Gotham can get truly creative in crafting its version of the villain:

Interestingly, Jerome and the Joker may be more closely connected than many of us could have guessed in earlier years. According to comments from Gotham actress Morena Baccarin, Monaghan will play a wholly new character in Season 4 in addition to Jerome, and Cameron Monaghan also mentioned in his chat with CinemaBlend that he's going to have "a new makeup look" that will be "exciting in its own sense." A double dose of Monaghan is almost certainly on the way in Gotham Season 4, and it's entirely possible that this second character will be the Joker. Only time will tell. Given what may happen at the very end of the season and Bruce's continuing development toward becoming Batman, we can be pretty confident that Jerome and the Joker won't be the only sources of chaos on Gotham in the foreseeable future.

Tune in to Fox on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Gotham. If you're still in the market for new shows now and in the coming weeks, be sure to take a gander at our midseason TV premiere guide, our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule, and our rundown of Amazon Prime premiere dates.

Warning: spoilers ahead for Episode 13 of Gotham Season 4, called "A Beautiful Darkness."

Gotham has introduced plenty of crazy villains over the years and added some bonkers twists to DC Comics characters we thought we already knew. One of the craziest bad guys has to be Jerome Valeska, who has been bringing his own particular brand of mayhem to the show since way back in Season 1. He's been locked up in Arkham for Season 4 so far, but "A Beautiful Darkness" brought him back into the mix when he decided that the time had come to recruit the newly-incarcerated Penguin. The terrible twosome didn't get off to a great start, and it was an awful lot of fun to watch Cameron Monaghan and Robin Lord Taylor face off as Jerome and Penguin. Monaghan recently spoke with CinemaBlend's Nick Venable about the dynamic between their two characters, saying this:

According to Cameron Monaghan, Jerome and Penguin get to be explosive with each other due to how grounded they are in their scenes together. Of course, it would be hard to argue that either character is particularly grounded in reality, given that Jerome all but laughed his face off after getting pummeled by Penguin and Penguin had to go to some pretty wacky lengths to take a stand against Jerome and his many cronies within Arkham. They weren't grounded in reality, but they were grounded in their convictions, and Gotham can always be counted on to give its villains some wild and crazy convictions to keep things exciting.

The good news is that there's more of Jerome and Penguin together in the rest of Season 4. Cameron Monaghan's comments point toward to the two mixing it up in later episodes, and they're both currently residing within Arkham, although both clearly intend to break out. Jerome is even ready to accept Penguin on his team after their incredibly entertaining and bizarre encounter in the Arkham cafeteria that saw Penguin go into a mime act to stop Jerome from lobotomizing him. When Jerome started playing along, Penguin seized his chance to attack Jerome... all while still incorporating mime moves. Monaghan went on in his chat with CinemaBlend to comment on that particular scene:

The fight/mime act between Jerome and Penguin was such a quintessentially Gotham scene that it may go down as one of the most unforgettable scenes of Season 4. My personal favorite part actually came early in the scene when Penguin pulled a spork on Jerome and the two bantered over whether Penguin was brandishing a spoon or a fork. All things considered, all of their interactions in the latest episode are worth a rewatch.

You can catch more of Jerome and Penguin when new episodes of Gotham air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. If you're still in the market for other viewing options, be sure to swing by our midseason TV premiere guide, our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule, and our 2018 Amazon Prime guide.

Jerome Valeska has been one of the wildest and most unpredictable characters on Gotham to date, so much so that many fans still can't help but believe that he's the Joker. Jerome has gone through a lot of changes over the years, including death, coming back, having his face cut off, and then stapling it back on. Due to all the changes in Jerome's appearance, actor Cameron Monaghan has to wear some pretty intense makeup to play the character. Monaghan spoke with CinemaBlend's own Nick Venable about Gotham. He teased a new look coming for Jerome and had this to say about the Jerome makeup we've come to expect:

The crazy makeup for Jerome evidently helps Cameron Monaghan get into character for Gotham. Jerome obviously looks about as bonkers as anybody in Arkham, and he's never exactly dressed in conventional clothing. Monaghan can go over-the-top to play this character in a way that he really can't for other roles, and his look as Jerome makes the whole process more fun. Throw in the insane laugh that Monaghan has mastered, and it's easy to see why Gotham fans compare him to the Joker. Jerome is easily one of the most iconic Gotham villains so far.

Despite the fact that Jerome in Season 4 has the accumulated injuries and scars of the earlier years of the show, Cameron Monaghan revealed that the makeup in Season 3 was actually a lot more difficult. Jerome stapling his face back on posed some challenges. His face stapled on looked complicated enough; when it began bleeding and peeling off and sliding as we might expect of a stapled face, the makeup job got even more complex. He described the change for Season 4:

Judging by Cameron Monaghan's comments, it sounds like the Jerome we know and love won't go through a lot of facial changes during his arc in Season 4. His time in Arkham seems to have given him the time to heal as much as one can with a stapled-on face, and not even Jerome is crazy enough to necessarily damage his own face for no particular reason. Besides, Jerome is bonkers enough without a face falling off. It still takes a while for the makeup to be applied and then removed, but Monaghan doesn't come across as bothered.

All of this said, Cameron Monaghan also seems to hint that he could play a second role in addition to Jerome in Season 4, which was recently teased by actress Morena Baccarin. Whether or not we'll see Monaghan as another character in addition to Jerome, we will apparently see Jerome looking different. Monaghan described what's to come without delving into spoilers:

We'll have to wait and see what's in store next for Jerome (and Cameron Monaghan) on Gotham. New episodes air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. The show may be adapting a huge Batman comic storyline for the end of the season, so be sure to tune in. For more TV options now and in the not-too-distant future, take a look at our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule.

_Spoilers below for Gotham's "Pieces of a Broken Mirror" are below, so do watch before reading on. _

Now that Gotham has finally returned for the back half of Season 4, fans are THIS close to fully reconnecting with Cameron Monaghan's darkly beloved maniac Jerome, who will become quite familiar with Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot within the walls of Arkham Asylum. It was firmly confirmed relatively recently that Jerome will definitely not serve as Gotham's version of The Joker, and it's been teased that the big Joker reveal will be one of the craziest moments Gotham has ever delivered. It now appears we have a clue how it might happen, too: dual roles for Cameron Monaghan.

Gotham star Morena Baccarin, whose Lee Thompkins has been more villainous lately, revealed this potentially game-changing twist when speaking with Bustle, though her direct quotes unfortunately weren't shared. She seemingly dropped that info-bomb by claiming Cameron Monaghan will be playing another wholly new character in Season 4, and that this character will be someone within Jerome's family. No clue if that means the Valeksa clan or whatever other family tree branches he's got, but if this new character does indeed end up becoming the Clown Prince of Crime, I seriously doubt we'll learn anything too concrete about his past and his youth.

Before we get into any lineage theories, though, let's first consider the biggest ramification here: our collective disappointment over Jerome not being The Joker might have all been for naught, since there's a more-than-slight chance that Cameron Monaghan could still be the actor portraying the delightfully manic villain. There's no real proof of that yet, of course, but giving the actor double the duties in Season 4 is an easy and brilliant way to build on Monaghan's haunting abilities to bring his villainous persona alive, while also paying tribute to The Joker's non-solidified origins.

Now, we did get to see how Jerome's wrath of madness started back in Season 1, so being a psychotic killer just might run in the family. But where in the family? The easiest and most TV-ready option here would be for Cameron Monaghan to take on a role as a twin brother (maybe separated at birth), which would require little more than turning his hair green and removing Jerome's particular scars; he'll probably have some of his own unique facial features. But Gotham might go in more unpredictable directions here to play up Monaghan's acting chops, and to potentially shatter the glass ceiling for how fucked up its Joker will be.

And wait just a minute here...Gotham's March 15 episode is titled "Reunion." Does that mean we'll get to see this grand introduction sooner than we'd have expected? Or will that refer more to Ed reconnecting with his Riddler persona that's currently engaging in black-ops missions without Ed's consent?

Gotham is all-new every Thursday night on Fox at 8:00 p.m., and we're hoping for the eventual meet-up of a lifetime. While waiting, check out what other Gotham character will become more like his comic iteration, and then head to our 2018 Superhero TV schedule and our midseason premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way.

Within Gotham's exponentially warped version of the Batman mythos, we have seen many memorable reimaginings of the comic books' greatest characters and situations. Arguably the most captivating of them all has been Jerome Valeska, the deadly and uncentered villain brilliantly portrayed by Cameron Monaghan. While Jerome isn't technically Gotham's Joker, he's been set up as the Clown Prince of Prototypes, and the actor got some big Twitter love from another animated actor quite familiar with the Joker persona, Mark Hamill. Check it out!

First, let's appreciate the fact that, on any given Thursday evening during Gotham's fourth season, we might have all been simultaneously doing the same thing as Mark Hamill by watching a Gotham episode. Even if he doesn't watch until Friday afternoons on Hulu or something, we can still pretend.

Next, let's appreciate that Mark Hamill specifically used the "Joker" nomenclature to refer to Cameron Monaghan's Jerome in the tweet above. It's certainly plausible-going-on-probable that Hamill isn't caught up on newsy Gotham tidbits, so he might not have seen that star David Mazouz confirmed Jerome and the Joker are mutually exclusive lunatics. Granted, no one on Gotham has ever made a definitive statement about Jerome being The Joker proper, but it was a presumed inevitability by many. And Mark Hamill is obviously in that crowd.

At this point, Gotham fans are used to the Jerome name, which might make things easier once The Joker is introduced, since there won't be much room for mix-ups there. Of course, if the man responsible for the most iconic Joker voice in history thinks that Jerome actually is Mistah J, then we're certainly not going to stop him.

Like a good fan, Mark Hamill is sticking to his (big orange prank) guns when it comes to Cameron Monaghan's work on Gotham. Here's what he said about the actor following Jerome's shocking Season 2 arc, in which he was temporarily killed off by Theo Galavan.

We certainly did get more from Gotham's Jerome following that "death," with the cackling criminal getting resurrected, all in the midst of getting his face sliced off and then stapled back on, only to have it punched off again. Teased in the Season 4 midseason finale, he'll return in "Pieces of a Broken Mirror," once again as an influential agent within Arkham, only now with his sights on the newly imprisoned Oswald, and we can expect to see them teaming up in the future.

With new versions of old villains in tow, Gotham Season 4 will return to Fox on Thursday, March 1, at 8:00 p.m. ET. And we bet Mark Hamill will be watching. To see when other shows are debuting and returning in the near future, head to our midseason premiere schedule.

With each of Gotham's seasonal arcs comes the sense that things can't possibly get much crazier in the future, and yet it always does. The first half of Season 4 introduced some new faces and new character dynamics, and the back half definitely looks to keep building the momentum. One big game piece at Gotham's disposal is Cameron Monaghan's "inmate terrible" Jerome, whose return was first teased in the midseason finale. Now, Gotham executive producer Danny Cannon has revealed a couple of new Jerome images, with one hinting at the villain experiencing more bloody facial injuries.

That's what we like to see, right? A Jerome that's all cut and bloodied-up, but still somehow retaining the ability to smile about it. I swear, it'll be so damned disappointing if Gotham builds Jerome's story to a point where, instead of actually becoming The Joker proper, he just mentors someone else into taking crafting the Crown Prince of Crime's mantle. Granted, that wouldn't take away from all the excellent performances that Cameron Monaghan gave us so far, but those performances are what earned him fans' approval to take on the iconic role. Not that fans dictate how Gotham works, but still.

In any case, it looks like Jerome's latest trip to Arkham isn't the most peaceful and fancy-free experience, since he apparently gets thwacked right in the face a time or two. The last time we saw him, he most certainly was not suffering from open wounds on the bridge of his nose, and the shot above makes it look like his cheek wounds might have been ripped open a little, too. In Arkham, there are an endless number of ways for someone to get their face wrecked, so it might not be worth much time speculating on what happened.

Unless, of course, that isn't the most current look at Jerome that Danny Cannon shared on Instagram. Perhaps this bit was taken from a past encounter, perhaps when Jerome was re-entering Arkham's population, since he's not in the recognizable stripes he's wearing below. (Though that does look like the standard prisoner' undershirt, and/or every grandfather's long johns.)

Now that looks like the Jerome we see more often, and Arkham needs to quickly wise up on the fact that its guards are pretty terrible at doing their jobs there, lest Jerome already get to break free in his first episode back. And he might very well do that, since David Mazouz says Jerome will be taking over Gotham City as part of a truly horrific upcoming episode. We know Jerome is teaming up with Penguin when Season 4 returns, and we are pretty sure that the classic Batman comic arc "Death in the Family" will partly inform the fun. So really, it doesn't matter where Jerome shows up next, or what parts of him are bleeding, so long as nothing stops him from talking and laughing and being amazing.

With our official introduction to The Joker seemingly coming soon, Gotham Season 4 will return to Fox for its midseason premiere in the early months of 2018, though no specific date has been set yet. But don't lose half of your face in anticipation. Sew that thing back on and hit up our 2018 Superhero TV rundown and our midseason premiere schedule to see all the other awesome shows that are on the way.

Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of Gotham. If you haven't watched the latest episode, you may want to check out one of our other stories.

It's an exciting week for avid TV fans, as many shows are airing their midseason finale, ahead of the winter hiatus. Fox's Batman prequel Gotham was no exception, as "Queen Takes Knight" brought the first half of the season's conflicts to a boil, while also setting up what will happen in the show's next set of episodes. One of the biggest cliffhanger moments of the episode featured the return of fan favorite Jerome. The show's answer to the Joker will be interacting with The Penguin from within Arkham Asylum, and series star David Mazouz (aka Bruce Wayne) recently teased the anarchy that the villain will be bringing to the back half of Season 4 when he inevitably escapes the Asylum.

This is equal parts exciting and terrifying terrifying. While his appearances in the show have been few and far between, the walking crazy that is Jerome has always resulted in massive conflicts, especially regarding Bruce Wayne. And if he's able to team up with some of the show's other villains, then there's no telling how much chaos he will bring upon Gotham City.

The last time we saw Jerome was back in Season 3, with his influence reaching more and more followers who are inspired by his anarchist ways and signature cackle. He very nearly killed Bruce Wayne, but Gordon was able to save the future Batman in the nick of time, punching Jerome's face clean off his head after the villain crudely stapled it back on (it's a long story). His face seems to be healing well from within Arkham Asylum, although he's no less creepy.

But Jerome's Season 4 conflict should be quite different from his previous goes on the prequel series. Because this time around Bruce has become a capable (albeit super moody) vigilante. This will be the closest thing we're like to see of a Joker/Batman conflict in the series. David Mazouz teased this to Comic Book, saying:

Now this is certainly exciting. Bruce has spent most of his tenure on Gotham as a relatively helpless kid, and it's going to be very satisfying for fans to see he and Jerome duke it out in a more legitimate conflict.

Gotham doesn't currently have a date for its return, but we'll be sure to update you as details become public. In the meantime, be sure to check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop.

Superhero shows and movies are everywhere nowadays. With three shared universes and a bevy of TV shows currently airing on the small screen, it seems like you can't turn a corner without bumping into superhero in tights. But some properties are attempting to shake up the genre, including Fox's Batman prequel series Gotham. Gotham uses the beloved Batman mythology and characters, but isn't afraid to take risks and plot changes that are unique from the source material. And perhaps no villain is quite a popular as Jerome, who is the show's current stand-in for a Joker character. And now we know where Jerome is headed during his appearance in Season 4: someplace wholly original from the comics. Gotham co-executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt recently teased Jerome's arc, saying:

It looks like Jerome will be stepping out of The Joker's shadow a bit this season, while also very much filling in the anarchist space that is current void of the Clown Prince of Crime.

It should be interesting to see exactly how Gotham allows Jerome more room to grow as a character. We know he'll be teaming up with fellow villain The Penguin this season, so perhaps Cobblepot will help the Joker prototype spread his wings and take a stronger hold on the city.

And while Jerome's role on Gotham has always been tertiary, it looks like his action in Season 4 may affect the show moving forward in a big way. In his same conversation with ComicBook, Bryan Wynbrandt teased Jerome's important role in the future of the series, saying:

Alas, we'll just have to wait and see as Gotham continues forward in it fourth season, complete with Jerome.

Gotham airs new episodes Thursdays on FOX. Be sure to check out our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the axe.

Warning: spoilers ahead for the winter finale of Gotham Season 3.

The winter finale of Gotham hit the airwaves last night, and it pulled out all the stops. Jerome Valeska was back in fine villainous form, looking to complete the mission to kill Bruce Wayne that had ended with his own death back in Season 2. Sadly for Jerome, he once again failed to kill Bruce, and the episode on heading back to Arkham with his face literally punched off by Jim Gordon. Actor Cameron Monaghan has this to say about what's next for his character:

Jerome was already pretty bonkers way back in his first episode, and it's clear that death, resurrection, and face-stapling has not exactly made him any saner. The winter finale was a showcase of his willingness to escalate any scenario to the point of utter lunacy if it means an especially violent and spectacular outcome. Cameron Monaghan doesn't seem to have any idea of when Jerome might be back to wreak fresh havoc on the people of Gotham City, but he clearly knows that Jerome will just keep getting bigger and bloodier each time he returns.

Honestly, given how quickly Jerome continuously improvised his scheme to kill Bruce (and unintentionally push him toward his destiny to become Batman) at the circus in the winter finale, the villain could probably hire out his services as a party planner for bad guys if he's ever strapped for cash. Sure, he was caught and incarcerated by the end, but he managed to put the carnival horror show together seemingly on the fly.

Jerome's unpredictable level of crazy often means that the authorities have a hard time tracking him down before he starts killing, and the other villains of the city could probably learn a few lessons from him. Then again, none of the others seem to be quite as off their rockers as Jerome. Even Penguin and Nygma at their most unbalanced might not have tied a teenager to a post in front of a cannon filled with knives as shrapnel.

Hopefully we don't have to wait until Season 4 find out what's on the way for Jerome in Gotham. Cameron Monaghan's tease to ComicBook.com about Jerome's future at least indicates that he will be back at some point and won't just spend the rest of the series rotting at Arkham. He won't even need to be resurrected for his next appearance.

Unfortunately, Gotham is currently heading into a long hiatus, and the series won't be back until Monday, April 24. Check out our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch in the meantime.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet seen Gotham's "Ghosts."

With "Ghosts," Gotham was often at its campiest and craziest, and the hinted-at arc of the title was hilariously baffling. But the narrative that many fans have waited for was the return of Cameron Monaghan's Jerome Valeska, Gotham's take on The Joker. We've seen small references to the fanatic cult that developed after around Jerome's shocking Season 2 death, and that cult got put in the spotlight tonight, as we learned they're the ones responsible for bringing their perma-grinning deity back. Get enough similar-minded people together and anything can happen.

Jerome's return for "Ghosts" sadly wasn't one in which he was fully animated and ramping the unhinged drama up into orbit, and he appeared only through past footage and in the episode's final moments, as we got to see where he's been held all this time instead of buried in the ground. (The corpse of Elijah Van Dahl appeared elsewhere, though, looking nowhere near as composed.) Not all of the dots have been connected yet, but enough connections were made for it to all make sense.

One new character tonight that wasn't Selina's mother was Dwight Pollard, played by Dark Knight actor David Dastmalchian. Jim and Bullock first tapped into this weirdo's activities due to his morgue job, a big sign of things to come, as well as the later reveal that he worked for Indian Hills. If you're going to work with dead people at one place in Gotham City, you might as well go for broke. He was the person behind the non-Hugo Strange reanimation of the corpse that put him in the GCPD's crosshairs, so Dwight's obviously got what it takes to reverse Jerome's current state of mortality.

While the membership list wasn't laid out in full for fans to study, it appears that Dwight was also at least partly responsible for getting the Joker cult going, as he was the person speaking at the gathering. (Not to be confused with the ICP festival, although the makeup seen therein ascertains crowd crossover.) This Jerome-loving bunch gets together to talk about taking down the oppressive powers-that-be while watching the Quasi-Joker's viral videos that went out along with his crime spree. It must have been quite the sight for Jim and Bullock to witness, with that non-admiration expressed through whipping some of their asses.

And now that next week will almost certainly introduce Jerome's Joker as he lives and breathes, I cannot wait to see how Gotham handles things this time around. It was recently revealed that the revived madman will influence Bruce Wayne in such a way that leads the young man deeper down his path to becoming Batman, which is an interesting spin on the characters' much-retconned histories in all media. My guess for his very first order of business? Killing Dwight Pollard, who had better have figured out a way to lower the voltage to keep his subjects alive a lot longer. Now to wonder if anyone in that crowd of cult members will become Harley Quinn later in the season.

With Jim no longer a marked man and Nygma's war on Oswald in full swing, Gotham airs Monday nights on Fox, although after the next two episodes (that will sadly wrap Jerome's Season 3 narrative), the drama will be going on a midseason hiatus. To see what you can watch while it's gone, head to our midseason premiere schedule.

For Season 1, Gotham tipped a hat to Batman's greatest nemesis with the introduction of Cameron Monaghan's carrot-topped Jerome, and he was a sadistic tempest in Season 2 until his shocking death. Season 3 has yet to give fans a sign of (after)life from Jerome or The Joker proper, but a new image from an upcoming episode implies the villain's story will seemingly soon continue. Also: it will be messy. Check it out!

Actor Cameron Monaghan has been on a teaser tear recently, dropping close-ups of his ghastly Gotham visage on social media and quickly deleting them, allowing for waves of speculation. One popular theory is that we'll get to see the complete mind-fuck of a Joker that was crafted for the New 52 relaunch, and the image above doesn't do anything to dissuade that line of thinking, considering the skin appears to have been cut from his face.

In the New 52 comics, Joker's face is removed by the Dollmaker and though he's assumed dead, Harley Quinn rescues him and, after he reattaches his face using a stapler and a belt, he goes on an epic crime spree that called back to the character's rich history. Things will obviously be different on Gotham, which doesn't have a Harley Quinn, and it doesn't seem like Barbara will take that title. Plus, it's more likely that Jerome's return will have something to do with Hugo Strange's experiments that brought so many others back from their deaths. Perhaps he'll also get some of Alice Tetch's blood. In any case, though, the point is that this corpse is missing his face skin, and that's exactly the kind of grisly shit that Gotham excels at.

Skeptics may look at this image and say, "You can't even really tell that's Jerome, and why would this scene even be happening present-day Gotham City when he's been dead a while?"And I say, "That dead body has red hair, and we know Jerome is coming back, and it's probably a flashback." Plus, not only did Fox put the image out there for the public to see, Cameron Monaghan shared it not long after on his Instagram page. So it's gotta be him, right? It's interesting to note that this is the rare promo shot that actually captures someone in action - as in Lee's hand being blurred as she pulls the sheet up - while most specifically feature actors in still moments.

Speaking of Lee, she and Jim were on very strange grounds when the midseason finale came to a close, as he appeared to have murdered her beau Mario Falcone, who was actually about to kill her in a jealous rage. We can't wait to see how he gets out of that jam, and how his uncle Frank's introduction will play into Gotham City's ever-growing problems.

Gotham will make its triumphant return to Fox with Season 3's "Ghosts" (and possibly a Dark Knight easter egg) on Monday, January 16, while a certain Clown Prince of Crime will possibly be back that next week for "Smile Like You Mean It." Head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what else is hitting the small screen in the new year.

Few shows are as fancy free with their subject matter as Gotham is with the history of DC Comics, and I say that in a pro-Gotham way. Fans have been waiting to see how the adventurous drama will handle the return of fan favorite villain Jerome, whose reemergence has been teased ever since he was first killed off last season. We know he's coming back soon, thanks to actor Cameron Monaghan's own recent viral marketing, and his social media posts (which have been deleted soon after going up) hint at one of The Joker's two most recognizable iterations being used on _Gotham. _

Cameron Monaghan apparently began filming his next Gotham episode in the past couple of weeks, and his blink-and-you-missed-it posts have been pretty revealing. The past two show the actor wearing some face prosthetics that make it look like his skin isn't quite attached to his face. (Take a look at a screengrab of one of those posts.) Fans of Batman lore already know that the skin on The Joker's face is an important part of the character in a nondetached sense, so could it be possible that Gotham will introduce the Clown Prince's storyline from the New 52?

Within the continuity of the New 52 launch at DC Comics, The Joker's time at Arkham Asylum included having his face ripped off by The Dollmaker. (For what it's worth, Gotham's Francis Dulmacher is presumably still alive.) Though he's thought dead by many, The Joker eventually returns for more murderous mayhem, with his face reattached to his skull by staples and a belt, creating one of the most amazingly grisly looks of any comic book villain.

Should it go down like this on Gotham, none of the details would need to be the same, so long as his face looks like a dropped pizza. I mean, it would be great to see some version of Harley Quinn show up to aid things along - though not this version - but it's all about the visuals in this case, since we know Jerome is going to deliver the goods performance-wise.

Gotham may not be seeking out the quickest way to make its audience throw up, however, so perhaps New 52 Joker is too far-fetched. What about if we got to see Cameron Monaghan pay homage to the big screen's first nightmarish take on the arch-nemesis? (Sorry Cesar Romero.)

For Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, Jack Nicholson donned facepaint and stylish suits as the deadliest Joker, and his villainous transition involved quite a bit of plastic surgery to vaguely fix everything that his chemical bath ruined. It was this reconstructive procedure that gave the character his recognizable smile, so that would be a great way to specifically bring Jerome back in as The Joker proper. But we have seen Jerome laughing and smiling ridiculously big already, so he might not need surgery to assist him there.

Creator Bruno Heller likes to put the comic book source material through his own processor to get original twists on familiar characters, so it's possible Jerome's return to Gotham will reveal a completely original version of The Joker, or one different from my guesses above. Whichever way it goes, we all win with more Jerome.

Gotham will return to Fox for more of Jerome's maniacal madness on January 16, 2017.To see what else is hitting the small screen before and after that time, check out our midseason premiere schedule.