TV: “Gotham” Gets Penguin and Alfred

Erin Richards (Breaking In), Robin Lord Taylor, Zabryna Guevara (Burn Notice), and Sean Pertwee (Camelot) have been cast opposite Ben McKenzie in Fox‘s Batman prequel drama series Gotham. Based on DC characters from the Batman universe, Gotham explores the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon, Bruce Wayne following the death of his parents, and the villains that made Gotham City infamous.

Taylor (The Walking Dead) will play Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin. With the brains of a chess grandmaster and the morals of a jackal, Cobblepot is a low-level psychopath for gangster Fish Mooney who hides his sadistic lust for power behind an exquisitely polite demeanor.

Guevara (Burn Notice) will portray Captain Essen, Gordon’s boss at the Gotham City Police Department Homicide Squad, who balances the two worlds of police and politics with a Machiavellian skill that is as much corporate litigator as cop.

Pertwee (Elementary, Camelot) is set as Alfred Pennyworth, the iconic butler from the Batman franchise. In Gotham, the character is a tough-as-nails ex-Marine from East London, who has loyally served the Wayne family.  In the wake of Thomas and Martha Wayne’s tragic deaths, he is fiercely protective of the young Bruce. (The part of the eventual Caped Crusader has yet to be cast.)

Richards (Breaking In, Being Human) has been cast as Barbara Kean, a sophisticated ER doctor, who is engaged to marry Gordon. She’s joyful but with an edge of vulnerability who stands by her future husband … which can be difficult in a world as corrupt as Gotham.

Gotham is written/exec produced by The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller, with Danny Cannon directing/exec producing for Warner Bros TV.