In just a few more episodes, Butch will return to Gotham as the undead villain Solomon Grundy. While Gotham’s new night has led to its lowest ratings yet, season 4 is all set to barrel ahead with its most ambitious episodes yet. A big part of the action this season will involve the characters of the show taking huge steps towards looking more like their comic book counterparts.
Naturally, the focus has been on Bruce Wayne’s change into a costumed vigilante, but the many villains of Gotham are undergoing some alterations as well. After debuting and subsequently disappearing in season 1, Jonathan Crane returned has returned in season 4 and emerged last episode as the Scarecrow. He’s all set for a big arc this season, terrorizing the city and providing Bruce with an age-appropriate villain. Meanwhile, another player is all set to return in a major way in a few weeks.
Comic Book spoke with Gotham producer Bryan Wynbrandt about the rebirth of Butch Gilzean as Solomon Grundy. After the character was revealed to have been born Cyrus Gold in the finale last season, his death was all but assured to be reversed. Now, we know that Grundy will crawl out of Slaughter Swamp in ‘A Dark Knight: The Blade’s Path’ on October 19.
With comics like The Long Halloween serving as inspiration for Gotham season 4, it’s clear that the horror genre will factor heavily into this new season. We’ve already seen this with the re-emergence of Scarecrow, but Grundy’s hulking zombie form will add even more of that vibe to this season, according to Wynbrandt:
Of course, the big question will be how Tabitha will react to Butch being back. When she confronted Barbara over murdering him last week, she clearly still had feelings for her old flame. How will she react to him returning from the dead as a zombie? And will Grundy harbor any resentment for Barbara?
“It’s got that Frankenstein-esk story to it. We are different from the comics in which Grundy’s appearances came of Cyrus Gold character. We have Butch Gilzean who at the end of last season, we teased that his first name was Cyrus Gold which was obviously a nod to Grundy. Cyrus Gold has a cannon of its own that’s different from Gilzean. We really were looking at this as Butch Gilzean becoming Grundy. What’s great is now that Grundy’s back in the world, there are people who know him as Butch Gilzean. There’s a very interesting dynamic to play when he crosses with our core characters and they don’t know that he’s this new character, this new canonical villain.”
Luckily, we won’t have to wait much longer for answers to these questions. While tonight’s season 4 episode will continue to flesh out the story of Gordon vs Penguin and Bruce’s rise as a hero, it won’t be munch longer until Grundy shambles his way onto Gotham.
Gotham continues tonight with “A Dark Knight: They Who Hide Behind Masks” on FOX.
Source: Comic Book
