Robin Lord Taylor, Zabryna Guevara (Burn Notice), Sean Pertwee (Camelot) and Erin Richards (Breaking In) have been cast opposite Ben McKenzie in Fox‘s Batman prequel drama series Gotham. Based on DC characters from the Batman universe, Gotham explores the origin stories of Commissioner James Sean Pertwee Erin RichardsGordon (McKenzie) as an idealistic rookie detective in Gotham City; Bruce Wayne following the death of his parents; and the villains that made Gotham City famous.

Taylor will play one of those villains, Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin. With the brains of a chess grandmaster and the morals of a jackal, Cobblepot is a low-level psychopath for gangster Fish Mooney who hides his sadistic lust for power behind an exquisitely polite demeanor. Guevara, repped by the Kohner agency and Jennifer Wiley Stockton, will play Captain Essen, Gordon’s boss at the GCPD Homicide Squad, who balances the worlds of police and politics with a Machiavellian skill that’s as much corporate litigator as cop. Pertwee, repped by NB Management, Hamilton Hodell and attorney Dale De La Torre, will play a younger version of Bruce Wayne’s trusted valet Alfred Pennyworth. A tough-as-nails ex-marine from East London, Alfred has loyally served the Waynes and now, in the wake of their tragic deaths, he’s fiercely protective of the young Bruce. In the casting notices for Gotham, the ideal choice for the role was described as a young Michael Caine, the actor who played Alfred in the Batman movie trilogy. Richards, repped by WME, Magnolia Entertainment and Curtis Brown in the UK, will play Barbara Kean, a sophisticated emergency room doctor and Gordon’s fiancée who stands by her future husband…which can be difficult in a world as corrupt as Gotham.

Gotham is written/exec produced by The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller, with Danny Cannon directing/exec producing for Warner Bros TV.

There's been a growing list of actors joining the show, playing a variety of different DCU characters and Logue recently addressed the setting, themes, characters, villains, and technology of it all with Nerd Repository.

On the setting and time period of Gotham:

What I do love about Gotham, that I can say so far, is that it creates this incredible world that, for me, you can step into things that almost feel like the roaring 20s, and then there’s this other really kind of heavy Blade Runner vibe floating around. It has this anachronistic element to it where it feels like it’s either New York in the 70s, or it kind of exists independently of time and space in a way, and you can dip into all of these different genres. So I’m excited by it.

There are elements of it that are completely contemporary and there are pieces of it that are very old-fashioned. I’m excited to see which way they go with the production design and wardrobe and all that kind of stuff. My main concern to start with, I was just going over this relationship between him and Gordon, just to find out how that dynamic plays out. Just to do my homework, basically.

It’s interesting that there’s something that exists that you can watch, but Ben obviously is not going to be tied to the cartoon and who Gordon is in that. I’m going to have to take a little bit of license and bring Bullock more towards me, and not me more towards the dude in the cartoon.

On Logue's "rough-around-the-edges" Bullock conflicting with McKenzie's "idealistic" Gordon:

Not only do I foresee it, I guarantee that is the complete and utter core of the conflict. One guy’s been around Chinatown for a long time, and knows how it has to work. Someone who’s come in from a more idealistic world – not to say non-violent, he’s coming back from the war – steps into it, and absolutely there’s a huge moral quandary.

On whether or not Bullock is a recurring character:

Contractually, I’m obligated to be there. I’m gonna be around, for sure. But the story falls squarely on Jim Gordon’s shoulders, and this awesome world where we get to meet the super infamous villains of Gotham City for the first time, when they’re young. For me, that’s the really interesting part: “oh, so that’s where you come from, Riddler.”

On old villains being shown in a new light:

I don’t know if I’m not supposed to say it, but yeah. I think it’ll be fun. There will definitely be Gotham villains that you’ve come to know and love being shown in a light that… maybe it’s the first time that light’s been shone on them