Southland and The O.C alum, Ben McKenzie, has been cast in Fox’s Batman Series Gotham.
According to Deadline, McKenzie has been tapped for the role of Detective James Gordon, which has a series commitment.
In Gotham, Gordon is an idealistic rookie detective for Gotham City Open Police Department’s Homicide Squad, a former college football star, and a war hero.
Gotham, which is based on the DC characters from the Batman universe, explores the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon (McKenzie) and the villains that made Gotham City famous. Gotham also includes younger versions of Bruce Wayne and Alfred as well as villains the Riddler, Catwoman, the Joker and the Penguin.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that McKenzie has become the latest actor to play Gordon. In ABC’s 1960 Batman series, Neil Hamilton played the role and Pat Hingle played the role in Tim Burton’s 1989 feature. Most recently, Gary Oldman portrayed the dogged detective who became the commissioner in Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise.
Gotham is written/executive produced by The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller, with Danny Cannon directing/executive producing for Warner Bros. TV.
The Gotham casting sets another highlight in McKenzie’s relationship with Warner Bros. TV where he has spent his entire TV career to date.
McKenzie was a fresh-faced 24-year-old with virtually no credits when WBTV cast him a decade ago as the lead of its Fox teen drama The O.C. McKenzie later went on to topline the studio’s cop drama Southland and starred in WBTV’s CBS drama pilot The Advocates last season.
McKenzie is with CAA, Management 360 and PJ Shapiro.