Ben McKenzie played James ‘Jim’ Gordon in the Batman prequel series Gotham from 2014 to 2019, voicing numerous DC Universe projects and becoming a well-known name in the franchise. It seems creator Bruno Heller saw this coming as he wrote the part of Gordon with McKenzie in mind!
Speaking to Collider at Fan Expo Canada, Mackenzie and his wife Morena Baccarin—who was also part of the prequel series as Dr. Lee Thompkins—spoke about their time on the show. The actor recalled getting a call from Heller, who told him, “I wrote the character of Gordon with you in mind, which was pretty cool.”
Recalling the days leading up to the shoot, McKenzie said the pressure was twofold. “I was both excited and nervous. I mean, it’s a huge responsibility,” he said. The police commissioner of Gotham PD has been a key character in the Batman universe and has been played on screen by many veteran actors over the years, including Gary Oldman, JK Simmons and Jeffrey Wright.
After Mackenzie shared her experience on the Gotham set, Baccarin also gave her opinion and talked about her character’s evolution through the series. She played Dr. Lee Thompkins, who worked in the psych ward of the infamous Arkham Asylum, which will be featured in the upcoming highly-anticipated Joker sequel.
“My character changed a lot from the beginning of the show, which was really great,” the actress recalled. The character, first introduced in the comics in 1976, evolved over the course of the show. When she was brought on, she had no idea where her character would be in the movie or for how long, so it was a pleasant surprise.
Lee eventually became a main part of the story after marrying Gordon and becoming stepmother to Barbara Gordon, who eventually became Batgirl. Baccarin said, “Once Lee became a main part of the story, it was about trying to figure out how to give her something to do independent of Jim (Gordon).”
She recalled how she was “bad” and how “running a city” and exploring the city’s dark side was really cool. “Where it ended up was really cool too,” she added.