According to Gotham‘s  showrunner Bruno Heller, the show will focus less on the super heroes of the fictional city, and more on ordinary cops and criminals.

Although a young Bruce Wayne will appear on the show, Heller stressed that Batman would not appear in the show. The show will focus on Jim Gordon’s origin story, as he rises through the police department and encounters many of Batman’s future foes, Penguin, Catwoman, and The Riddler to name a few. DC Comics’ Geoff Johns will pen at least some of the first season episodes to help appropriately introduce the villains into Gotham.

Although the show will not feature Gotham’s most famous resident,Heller feels Gotham will be just as interesting without him. “We have villains running around Gotham so it doesn’t feel like the entire city sinking into a pit waiting for someone you can’t introduce,” Heller said. “[It’s a story of] how do you deal with crime of this level when there are no superheroes? When ordinary men and women are dealing with the struggle waiting for a savior. It’s about men and women and not about superheroes and that’s the more interesting story.”

“If there is a superhero in the show, it is Gotham,” Heller said. “That’s a larger-than-life character that’s a central part of the show. To me, heroes are more interesting than superheroes because the difference is superheroes do the impossible and drama is really about the physically possible. This is about people and people trying to overcome real problems versus trying to learn how to fly.”