‘Gotham’ Season 2 Makes Joker and Barbara Arkham Pals in First Clip

Gotham split itself right down the middle between serious drama and campy Schumacher homage, and now with Barbara and a proto-Joker front and center for Season 2, which one would you imagine leads the charge by our first clip? Are you ready to visit Arkham and kick off the “Rise of the Villains?”

It remains to be seen if Gotham producers will throw us for a loop with Cameron Monaghan’s “So Obviously the Joker” Jerome, but the cackling villain looks to make a new friend in the similarly-incarcerated Barbara (co-ed sanitariums, because Gotham). If nothing else, Erin Richards at least looks to be having more fun with the out-and-out deranged Barbara, while it seems as if Todd Stashwick of “The Mask” also puts in a return appearance.

Elsewhere of Gotham Season 2, we know the second run will make series regulars of Drew Powell’s Butch Gilzean, Chris Chalk’s Lucius Fox, Nicholas D’Agosto’s Harvey Dent, and Morena Baccarin’s Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Producers will incorporate such Bat-baddies as Clayface, the Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Hugo Strange, Tommy Elliot, and potentially even the Court of Owls, while early episodes will serve as a “pre-embryonic” (sigh) origin story for the Joker.

In addition to Natalie Alyn Lind’s Silver St. Cloud and True Detective star James Frain’s role as sinister philanthropist Theo Galavan, Gotham Season 2 will also feature Michael Chiklis as Captain Nathaniel Barnes, Jessica Lucas as Galavan’s sister (and future Tigress) Tabitha, along with Dustin Ybarra as a homicidal cannibal. Victoria Cartagena and Andrew Stewart-Jones have also been downgraded from their series regular roles of Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen, while you can check out the first photos here.

Gotham Season 2 will return on Mondays this fall, so take a look at the teasers above and below while we wait.

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