Gotham is set to drastically re-interpret another familiar DC villain in its second season. After a casting call went out for what’s apparently one of this coming season’s major antagonists, along with her twin brother, FOX and DC Entertainment have now confirmed that the character in question is an all-new version of DC villainess, Tigress. She’ll also be portrayed by Jessica Lucas, of Gracepoint and Cult fame, which was just confirmed today.
Tigress has been a long-running villain throughout DC lore, dating all the way back to the Golden Age comics of the 1930’s. The character has seen several incarnations already, with the most recent being Artemis Crock, the daughter of the second Tigress (and potential granddaughter of the first), who has no powers, but is a highly accomplished athlete and hunter with superb tracking capability. In the New 52 reboot of DC Comics, Crock was re-interpreted somewhat to be a heroine and ally to the Teen Titans, even appearing to be killed off at one point, though was later resurrected after an event called ‘The Culling’ that initially killed her.
The incarnation of Tigress that will be featured on Gotham is an all-new version named Tabatha Galavan, and it’s currently unknown when or how she may adopt the ‘Tigress’ mantle from DC lore. She is described as being, “Sexy and violent” in nature, and derives pleasure from the chaos she causes around Gotham City. This is in contrast to her twin brother, Theo Galavan, who will be a more cold and calculating baddie portrayed by Grimm’s James Frain. Tabatha is also confirmed to wield a bullwhip, leading to some obvious speculation that she’ll be something of an influence to future Catwoman, Selina Kyle at some point during Gotham’s second season, with Selina possibly inheriting the whip from Tabatha at some point for her future Catwoman identity.
FOX recently announced their primetime TV schedule for Fall 2015, where Gotham’s second season was confirmed to be debuting on Monday, September 21st, in its usual timeslot of 8:00-9:00 P.M. Starting at the end of October however, this will put it in conflict with CBS’ new and competing DC Comics-inspired drama, Supergirl in the same timeslot, which will put the onus on Gotham to deliver an especially killer sophomore season for the live viewership!
Keep prowling to Eggplante for all news and updates on Gotham, and other high-profile DC television projects.