Things are about to get even crazier for season three of Fox's Gotham.
Fox announced that it cast Benedict Samuel as the Mad Hatter, who will arrive in the city to stir things up for Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne and friends.
The Walking Dead actor will take on the role of the villain Jervis Tetch, who is a "talented hypnotist teetering on the edge of madness." He comes to Gotham City in search of his sister Alice, who has gone missing.
Mad Hatter is one of the golden age Batman villains that started out as a funny character, but eventually grew darker as comic books became more mature. The villain takes inspiration from Lewis Carroll's character of the same name and originally appeared in 1948.
In DC Comics, the Mad Hatter is a scientist who invents devices that can control and manipulate minds. He carries this device on his head, under an oversized green hat. He's also obsessed with hats, and at times, refuses to eat anything that doesn't have a hat on it. When he gets stressed out, he often speaks in rhymes. He also has an unhealthy obsession with children and once kidnapped a young Barbara Gordon and made her dress up as Alice for a tea party inspired by events from Carroll's books.
Because he was always a little weird, Tetch rarely had friends, so he turned his interests to technology, which led to the invention of his mind-controlling device.
Most recently, in DC's New 52 comic books, Tetch suffers from a condition that prevents him from physically growing up. He starts taking testosterone-based drugs to combat that, but the drugs make him even crazier, which results in his parents committing him to Arkham Asylum.
So, how will this character play into season three of Gotham? With him arriving to search for his missing sister, it's likely that his obsession with children will somehow bring him into contact with both Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne. This means the series will probably have a season three storyline that involves missing children, a case that will prove tough for the Gotham City Police Department to crack.
Gotham's third season will also build upon the Court of Owls, something alluded to in the second season. That organization is a secret society that controls and manipulates everything in Gotham. This season will also finally put a spotlight on classic Batman villain Killer Croc and bring Fish Mooney back to the organized crime world of the city's underbelly.
Gotham returns to Fox this fall on Sept. 19.
