Fox’s upcoming Batman prequel, Gotham, explores its titular city from the perspective of a young Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), who befriends an adolescent Bruce Wayne on the fateful night when Wayne’s parents are murdered. The new trailer kicks off with a couple of Hans Zimmer-inspired brahmmmm’s, in case the Christopher Nolan-esque atmosphere wasn’t sufficiently clear.
The ominous imagery owes a debt to Nolan’s trilogy as well, and even some of the dialogue we hear—“there is a war coming,” a young Penguin says—could have come from the Dark Knight movies. The trailer teases plenty of recognizable villains, as well as a seductive new character played by Jada Pinkett Smith. With The Mentalist’s Bruno Heller at the helm, Gotham looks to me like the promising realization of what could have been a superhero cash-in. It doesn’t yet have a premiere date, but will reportedly arrive some time during the 2014-15 season.
