Wasting no time in hurrying up and waiting for Batman, Fox debuted the first trailer for Gotham last night, only hours after confirming it had been picked up to series. In the tradition of Smallville, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Bates Motel, and other prequels before it, Gotham promises the Batman characters you’ve grown to love, back when they were just heading down the twisting paths and standing amid the iconic props that would define them.
There’s proto-Penguin with an umbrella. Kitten-Girl, heck-bent for leather and already given to climbing things. Prepubescent Poison Ivy watering a plant, wink wink. And, of course, Bruce Wayne, Gotham’s sobbing guardian, a whimpering protector. But right now this is Ben McKenzie’s show as a young James Gordon, and this is his war—a “war” that’s mentioned several times over the imagery of burning wreckage and insistent Inception horns that lend this show a distinct Christopher Nolan’s Batman Babies vibe, and amid equally grave pronouncements from Donal Logue and a pink-haired Jada Pinkett Smith. Obviously, you’ll be rooting for Gordon to lose, because that’s the only way you get Batman.