Gotham Knights is a superhero teen drama created for The CW. Produced by Chad Fiveash and James Stoteraux, alongside story editor Natalie Abrams, the series is based on the DC Comics Batman mythos.
The Batman is dead. A fact that has shaken Gotham City to its core, along with the revelation that its Dark Knight was secretly the millionaire Bruce Wayne. Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan), the adopted son of Wayne, is thrust into a new infamous life as his father's legacy haunts him. Harvey Dent (Misha Collins) believes he's detained three prime suspects: the duplicitous "Daughter of the Joker" named Duela Doe, the gifted engineer Harper Row, and her brother Cullen Row.
Despite sharing the same name, close release period, and a few plot details, this series is not connected to the video game of the same name. Furthermore, despite sharing key production figures and characters, this is not connected to Batwoman (2019) or the Arrowverse at large.
The series premiered on March 14, 2023, but was later canceled in June 2023
, with efforts to continue the show elsewhere being unsuccessful. Gotham Knights ends its run at 1 season of 13 episodes.
Previews: Official Trailer
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Harper and Cullen ran away from home to escape their abusive father, an alcoholic who beat them. Their mother left home before that.
- Harvey Dent it turns out also had an abusive father with mental illness giving him totally different personalities, with one beating him for even the slightest thing and the other a perfect, loving man who'd been totally unaware of this.
- As per comics canon, Stephanie Brown's father is emotionally abusive, as is her mother when she's under the influence of the painkillers she's addicted to. Later her mother slaps her as well.
- In fact, most of the main characters' parents are either abusive, neglectful or literal villains (Harper and Cullen's parents, Stephanie's parents, Brody's parents, Duela's mother, Duela's father Harvey Dent in his alternate personality, Turner's biological parents), with the only exceptions being Carrie's mother Lisa Kelley and Turner's father Bruce Wayne, and the latter is a Posthumous Character.
- Accidental Hero: In episode 5, chased by corrupt cops, the team toss the stolen mob money out of the van, with the people of the neighborhood racing to get it and blocking the cops. Watching the news, the gang is stunned that the people of the neighborhood think this was a deliberate move to help expose the protection racket and are hailing "the Gotham Knights."Turner: What's going to happen when they discover their new heroes are also their most wanted fugitives?
- Action Girl: Carrie Kelley, Duela Doe, and Harper Row are all very capable of kicking ass against grown policemen. Stephanie Brown later graduates to this status after training between episodes.
- Adaptational Backstory Change:
- In the comics, Duela has a Multiple-Choice Past; first appearing under the alias of "The Joker's Daughter", she was revealed to actually be the daughter of Two-Face. Later doubt was shed on that, too, and she's claimed to be the daughter of various villains over the years, including the Penguin, the Riddler and even Doomsday, with the implication she's really related to none of the above. In this series, she is literally the Joker's daughter, and Jane Doe's, born when they were both at Arkham. It later turns out that Duela is Harvey Dent's daughter and Jane lied about her paternity, with the Joker's blessing, so that no one would dare mess with Duela. However, it's still a change from the comics, where Duela and Harvey had known they were related and Duela's mother had been Harvey's wife Gilda (until their relation was subject to yet another retcon).
- Bruce believed that Joe Chill was only a hired hand for the Court of Owls. This plays on an old take that mobster Lew Moxon had hired Chill to kill the Waynes as revenge for Thomas having him arrested.
- This series' version of Stephanie Brown has not yet become Spoiler, and her father Arthur appears to still be a reputable game-show host and not yet the supervillain Cluemaster. On the other hand, as in the comics, her mother Crystal has a drug addiction which causes Stephanie to avoid going home until after her mom is passed out.
- In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Carrie's parents are a pair of white, drug-addled ex-hippies. In this show, she's black, and the daughter of a single mother who is a successful (albeit overworked) doctor. She was also apparently Bruce's first and only Robin.
- In the comics, Lincoln March is a name adopted by Batman villain Owlman, who is really Bruce Wayne's long-lost older brother Thomas Wayne Junior. Here, it's his real identity and the Marches are an old Gotham family.
- Adaptation Deviation: Gotham Academy isn't a boarding school in this version. Fortunately, since that would make it harder for the gang to move around their base at night as they do.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The second episode opens with the GCPD raiding Wayne Manor and discovering the Batcave, and taking all of Batman's equipment into their custody as evidence.
- Ancient Conspiracy: As in the comics, the Court of Owls has been controlling Gotham for centuries.
- And the Adventure Continues: In the finale, despite thinking Turner is dead, the Gotham Knights decide to still protect the city, which will need them more than ever now that Harvey Dent completed his change to Two-Face. Also Turner is taken in by Henri Ducard who plans on training him to be an assassin like his parents.
- Axe-Crazy: Ten seconds with Duela is enough to convince anyone she's the daughter of the Joker as she likes to use violence while being pretty obviously unhinged.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Harvey fights his alternate self for control over his body in "Poison Pill" while they meet inside of Harvey's imaginary office, and he wins... for now.
- Big Bad: The end of the pilot episode reveals that everything is being orchestrated by the Court of Owls.
- Big Damn Heroes: Carrie rescues the four falsely accused teens from Corrupt Cops in the pilot, disabling them with an array of gadgets before making her entrance.
- The Big Damn Kiss:
- Turner and Duela finally kiss at the end of "Poison Pill", after several episodes of flirting, before they have sex.
- After a lot of Belligerent Sexual Tension, Steph and Harper share a kiss at the end of "Daddy Issues", which at last confirms Steph's a lesbian. They've become a couple after this.
- Bittersweet Ending: The season-turned-series finale is this, mostly due to the series being Cut Short. The kids clear their names and stop Dr. Leviticus's plans to destroy Gotham, but Turner is left behind when Wayne Tower blows up, leaving the rest of the team to believe that he died in the collapse. Also, Harvey Dent completes his Face–Heel Turn to Two-Face, and it's anyone's guess what nefarious plans he has in store for Gotham with his moral side suppressed. Despite all that has happened, the kids have become True Companions and decide to continue as the Gotham Knights, compelled by the need to help others and protect the city in Batman's absence. Meanwhile, Turner uncovers the truth about his past, and his faith in his adopted father Bruce is restored. Discovering that his birth parents were skilled assassins trained by Henri Ducard, who also saved him from the Wayne Tower blast, Turner now has an opportunity to fully follow in Batman's footsteps by embracing Ducard's tutelage.
- Canon Character All Along: Rebecca March turns out to be Dr. Leviticus, a member of the Court of Owls from the comics.
- Canon Foreigner:
- Turner Hayes is the only main character to be a brand new character exclusive to this series, though with a similar backstory to Dick Grayson and Jason Todd from the comics (poor orphan adopted by Bruce Wayne).
- Rebecca and Brody March, the wife and son of Lincoln March, have no counterparts in canon. Until it turns out that Rebecca is a Canon Character All Along, as an adaptation of Doctor Leviticus. Brody is still a Canon Foreigner, however.
- Cast Full of Gay: Harper is bisexual, Cullen's a trans man, Duela's Ambiguously Bi and Stephanie's a lesbian, meaning that about half of the series' main characters are in some way LGBT+.
- Clear My Name: Turner Hayes is accused of murdering his own adoptive father, alongside Duela and the Row siblings. However, he knows he couldn't have done it, and his fugitive allies were only hired to steal from Wayne, not knowing that it was a Frame-Up and Wayne would be dead when they broke into his office.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames:
- Subverted. For the first four episodes it seems like "Gotham Knights" will just be the title of the show, but in the fifth episode the protagonists are finally labelled that by the press.
- So far, Carrie/Robin is the only team member to use a personal codename, however, although Stephanie and Harper's comic identities as Spoiler and Bluebird have been alluded to and conceivably could eventually have been used if the series had gotten more seasons. Duela's alias when she first appears in the comics is "Joker's Daughter", which has been more of a description than a name in the show. Cullen never used a codename in the comics, and Turner and Brody aren't in the comics.
- Corrupt Politician: Mayor Hamilton Hill turns out to be in the pocket of the Court of Owls.
- Darkest Hour: "City of Owls", the penultimate episode before the season-turned-series finale ends with The Gotham Knights along with Brody apprehended by the GCPD and framed in the murders of the Court of Owls murders. Not to mention Duela is drugged by her own mother so she can be turned in for the reward money and Rebecca has sent Talons to kill the Gotham Knights and has nefarious plans for Harvey.
- Delinquents: Harper, Cullen and Duela are three youths who live on the street, surviving by theft.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the One Bad Day specials, Two-Face's father met his end when Two-Face crashed his birthday party, infected his dad with a nerve toxin that disfigured him, and caused Mr. Dent to commit suicide out of despair. Here, Harvey's darker half arranged an accident that caused Mr. Dent to have a nasty fall and die after hours of excruciating pain.
- Dirty Cop:
- Detective Ford was paid to kill Turner along with the other kids implicated in Bruce Wayne's murder. After they attempt to escape, he nearly does before they're rescued by Robin. In the fourth episode, it turns out he also prevented Bruce Wayne's lawyer from telling the authorities that the changes Bruce recently made to his will did not cut Turner out of it, which would have invalidated Turner's supposed motivation for having Bruce killed.
- In "Daddy Issues" Lincoln waltzing into the interrogation room while the Commissioner is "on her lunch break" has Stephanie realizing she's in the Court's pocket.
- Evil All Along: Turner's biological parents were international assassins who tried to kill Batman and ended up dead as a result.
- Fake a Fight: A variation as Duela, Cullen and Harper blame Turner for setting them up and start a fight in the cell that has to be broken up by the cops. In the prison van, the trio reveal they knew right away Turner wasn't behind this and used the fight to lift items to break the cuffs. Of course, Turner is the one person who didn't realize the fight wasn't for real.
- First-Episode Twist: The end of the pilot reveals that the Court of Owls are the ones who had Bruce Wayne murdered.
- Foreshadowing: Stephanie kisses Turner, but then says she felt nothing, thinking this would be different from her boyfriend (whom kissing also did nothing for her). This precedes her realization she's a lesbian, then kissing Harper, which does make her feel something.
- Frame-Up:
- The three youthful criminals Harper, Cullen and Duela are framed for Wayne's murder by robbing the place just as he's killed. The payment for them comes from Turner's account so he's arrested too.
- Joe Chill says he was framed for murdering Thomas and Martha Wayne, having gotten hired simply to mug them (using an empty gun) then both were shot making it look like he'd done it. Turner believes this, and it appears to be true, but can't stop his execution.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Harper Row says that, along with beating them, her dad wasn't happy with her being bisexual and her younger brother Cullen trans, which is another reason the siblings ran away. Detective Ford seems pretty contemptuous of Cullen's gender as well.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: With the entire GCPD hunting them, where do Turner and the rest hide out? In an upper floor of the clock tower at Turner's prep school, which only Stephanie knows about and Turner figuring the cops will never look at some place so obvious.
- Hollywood Law:
- While some prisoners have spent a long time awaiting execution in the US, fifty years (as Joe Chill does) is pretty unlikely without either being executed or having his sentence commuted. Here, it's ascribed to the Court of Owls' influence, keeping him alive for their purposes until he's deemed useless at last.
- If any real child were born in a mental institution like Duela, there's no way she'd also be raised there to young adulthood. She'd be put in the custody of the nearest relative who wasn't incarcerated, or in foster care if she had none.
- Immortality Inducer: Rebecca March perfected one she named Electrum which has made her live to around two hundred while looking perhaps fifty at most. She has also used it to give a few others immortality as well, including her son Brody.
- Immortality Seeker: The Court seeks to find a substance that will make them immortal and allow them to rule Gotham forever.
- Impaled Palm: Duela and Carrie's attempt to interrogate Eunice Munroe goes awry when it turns out that Eunice has a knife hidden in her music box. Said knife gets stabbed into Duela's hand.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Duela's antiques dealer ends up run through by the Talon's katana.
- Lincoln March gets stabbed through the chest by the Talon during a meeting with Harvey.
- Incompatible Orientation: Cullen says Harper (who's bisexual) only falls for boys she doesn't take seriously and girls who are straight and won't reciprocate her feelings. It's said in reference to Stephanie, who they think is a straight girl. However, it turns out she's a lesbian and attracted to Harper, kissing her in the next episode.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: At the end of the pilot, Duela recites a rhyme she heard in Arkham about the dangers of the Court of Owls. Eunice Monroe later repeats it in the fourth episode.
- Lady Drunk: Stephanie's mother turns out to be an alcoholic (and pain medication addict) who's quite bitter about her life, lamenting her sufferings.
- Left Hanging: The finale ends the series conclusively in most respects as they anticipated a possible cancellation, but there's still some plot threads left dangling, mainly Two-Face's plans for Gotham now that Harvey's repressed personality is let loose, the Gotham Knights still think Turner is dead, while Turner himself is saved by Henri Ducard who wants to turn him into a warrior like his parents and Bruce Wayne.
- Locked Out of the Loop: At the outset, Turner has no idea that his adoptive dad is Batman, and certainly does not know that his classmate Carrie is actually Robin.
- Lost in Imitation:
- As in Batwoman, the Joker was killed by Batman in the backstory of this continuity (or so everyone thinks; neither version gives the specifics of what exactly happened).
- Like Batman Begins, the finale presents Henri Ducard as the head of an international league of assassins rather than just a corrupt Parisian detective as in the comics. It's not established whether he's an alias of Ra's al Ghul as in the film, but seems plausible.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: A downplayed example as femme lesbian Stephanie and tomboyish bisexual Harper get together near the end of the first season. Neither is that pronounced however in their style.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The Court of Owls has murdered many people across the years that they made appear to be suicides or accidents.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Jane Doe says Harvey Dent is Duela's father, that he used her for sex and pretended not to know her afterward, told everyone she was a delusional stalker, and had her committed to Arkham. The fact that Harvey has Dissociative Identity Disorder makes her version of events possible, but Jane is both crazy and dishonest, and without a DNA test, it's impossible to know if she's telling the truth.
- Mythology Gag:
- In the first episode, Stephanie mentions Olive Silverlock, the protagonist from Gotham Academy.
- The access code for Bruce's private elevator is "1939", the year Batman debuted in the comics.
- Stephanie's father game show host Arthur Brown appears, though he hasn't become a supervillain (yet, at least).
- Ed Nigma (the Riddler) is mentioned in episode two as being one of the most (in)famous alumni of Gotham Academy.
- The original character of Duela variously claimed the Joker and Harvey Dent as her father. She only says the Joker here but then it turns out Harvey Dent is her actual father.
- There are several allusions to Stephanie's superhero codename from the comics, "Spoiler", and one to Harper's, "Bluebird".
- Named by the Adaptation: In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the leader of the Mutants is just called "Mutant Leader". In this version, he has an actual name, Vernon Wagner.
- The Night Owl: All of the Gotham Knights, not entirely by choice given that the falsely accused kids use the tower attic of Gotham Academy as their home base and can only move around freely at night, therefore they sleep in.
- Off with His Head!: Detective Ford is beheaded with a sword by the Talon after a failed attempt to kill Turner and co. The second episode reveals that the Talon also beheaded everyone else in Ford's squad, and sent the heads to the GCPD in boxes.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Harvey and a cop are trying to find Ford, calling his cell phone only for it to ring from a box on the desk containing Ford's severed head. They start calling the other members of Ford's team... and several boxes around the squad room start ringing.
- This is Turner and Carrie's reaction when the Talon shows up. And Duela's reaction when the Talon impales her fence.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Turner was an orphan whom Bruce Wayne adopted, before being murdered himself.
- Harper and Cullen Row have fled their abusive father to fend for themselves. Harper mentions that their mother left, so he started beating on them instead of on her.
- Patricide:
- While in a drug-induced state, Harvey recalls that after his other personality emerged as a child, he killed his father.
- Duela has carried a bullet she wants to kill her father the Joker with for years it turns out. When she learns her father is really Harvey Dent, Duela shoots him at her mother's urging. However, he lives due to a coin stopping the bullet which was in his front pocket.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Ford, a Corrupt Cop who is in on the Frame-Up, seems contemptuous of Cullen being trans and attempts to deadname him in detention before Harvey tells him off.
- Queer Establishing Moment:
- Harper mentions that she's bisexual to Dent and Ford while they're interrogating her, explaining one reason she ran away with her brother Cullen was because her dad disliked this. Cullen is identified as a trans boy too in the next scene.
- Stephanie later tells Harper she realized she's not attracted to boys and she really likes girls before kissing her.
- Race Lift:
- Carrie Kelley is black, whereas she was white in the original comics.
- Cressida Clarke is white in the comics, but is played in the show by K.K. Moggie, a New Zealand actress of Malaysian descent.
- Dr. Chase Meridian was previously played by Australian actress Nicole Kidman in Batman Forever, and her comic book counterpart is a redhead, but here she's played by Grace Junot, who is of mixed Thai-American descent.
- Lincoln March is not of Lebanese descent like actor Damon Dayoub in the comics, seeing as his comic version is Bruce Wayne's long-lost brother.
- Really 700 Years Old: Rebecca March, who looks around forty-five or so, turns out to actually be two hundred or thereabouts as the result of taking Electrum.
- The Reveal:
- Cressida works for the Court of Owls, who also have the Mayor in their pocket.
- Harvey Dent is actually Duela's father, not the Joker, which she'd thought for all her life.
- The Runaway: Harper and Cullen Row are teenage siblings who ran away from home to escape their abusive father, surviving on the street by stealing.
- Ship Tease:
- As time goes on, Turner and Duela grow closer and show signs of attraction.
- Stephanie and Turner are very close friends and in "A Chill in Gotham" seem to be near the point of kissing after Turner thanks Steph for always believing in him, before she gets a call from Brody. Harper assumes (incorrectly) that they're already Friends with Benefits. This ship gets sunk in "Poison Pill" when Turner kisses Stephanie and she tells him she didn't feel any chemistry.
- Harper and Stephanie have some moments together as the former begins to warm up to the latter. Ultimately, they get together.
- Stealth Pun: In "More Money, More Problems", the music that activates Harvey's dissociative state is one of Mozart's Masses in C-Minor - which is a fugue... which is another word for a dissociative state.
- Street Urchin: Harper and Cullen are teenagers who'd lived on the street surviving by theft after they fled their abusive father.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the pilot, Harper tries to make a plea deal where she takes responsibility for the death of Bruce Wayne in exchange for Cullen being let go. Harvey shoots her down, as it's obvious that she, Cullen, and Duela were hired by someone and her confession is worth nothing unless she can name who paid her.
- Taken During the Ending: The season finale ends with Turner Hayes going back into Wayne Tower to retrieve Bruce Wayne's journals, and getting ambushed and kidnapped by assassins on the way out.
- Teens Are Monsters: Harvey Dent places this expectation on Duela due to her reputation of being kin to Gotham's most notorious criminal.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Turner is not thrilled about working with Duela, Harper and Cullen, nor are they particularly thrilled about working with him. The Rows don't always get along with Duela, either. None of them are excited when Turner brings in Stephanie and Carrie, as they don't think a pair of prep-school girls have the stomach for fighting the Court of Owls; in particular, Harper doesn't like Stephanie due to viewing her as a rich girl who doesn't know what she's doing. They all warm up to each other over time however. Carrie and Stephanie turn out to be very skilled, useful members of the team. Duela and Turner become a couple. Stephanie and Harper do too. Duela also becomes quite fond of Carrie.
- Token Good Cop: While most of the GCPD are corrupt and/or brutish towards the heroes, Sgt. Apone befriends Cullen during his various trips to infiltrate the precinct. He even gives Cullen a hug after the Gotham Knights help defend the precinct from the Court of Owls in the finale.
- Troubled Teen: Duela, Harper, and Cullen have been abandoned by their parental figures in one way or another, and have taken to stealing in order to survive. Stephanie's mother pops pills while drinking heavily and is constantly high/drunk and it's indicated that this is the reason Stephanie overextends herself in trying to support others. Turner and Carrie are slightly this trope to a lesser extent.
- Two Girls to a Team: Inverted; Turner and Cullen are the two guys on the team with the rest being girls (Duela, Harper, Carrie and Stephanie). Which is subverted in the last two episodes when Brody joins, making the ratio four girls to three guys (temporarily a Gender-Equal Ensemble when Duela has skipped out on them).
- Wild Teen Party: The pilot sees Turner hosting one at Wayne Manor. Some of the usual trappings, like broken furniture, are avoided with Carrie Kelley saving a fallen vase (foreshadowing her practiced reflexes). Other tropes, like awkward couch hook-ups, aren't.
- Worf Had the Flu: It's eventually revealed that the Court of Owls was able to kill Batman because Cressida got close enough to Bruce to poison him, dulling his senses enough that the Talon was able to kill him.
- You Have Failed Me:
- Detective Ford and his squad are all decapitated by the Talon for failing to eliminate Turner and the others.
- Mayor Hill is fatally gassed by the Court of Owls for bungling handling the Mutant Gang's attack on the Founders' Gala.
