Commissioner Gordon Begins? Fox Planning Batman Prequel Series with 'Gotham'

The Avengers aren't the only blockbuster franchise heading to the small screen. On the day that ABC premiered Agents of SHIELD, a companion series to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Fox announced that it had won the bidding for Gotham, a series that will explore the origin story of the future Commissioner Jim Gordon. From Deadline:

It explores the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon and the villains who made Gotham City famous. In Gotham, Gordon is still a detective with the Gotham City Police Department and has yet to meet Batman, who will not be part of the series.

Interesting. While Agents of SHIELD is fully locked into the world that Marvel has created, there's no word on whether or not Gotham will set be tied into the Justice League universe Warner Bros. is trying to create with Man of Steel and the upcoming Superman/Batman movie. While Gotham will have a considerable amount of timeline between it and the present-day DC movies, Deadline's description of the project includes "the villains who made Gotham City famous." If Gotham is telling the origin stories of Batman villains, how will that impact the Justice League franchise? Unless we're talking some Breaking Bad-esque writing, I really don't want to see a TV show tackle the story of the how the Joker came to be.

The fact that Gotham is heading to Fox is also an interesting turn. So far, Smallville, Arrow and other DC TV shows have all stuck to Warner Bros.'s networks like The CW. This is a big jump for Gotham.

The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller will helm Gotham.