The Rise of the Villains began on Gotham Season Two with Penguin as the underworld King but are Owls flocking to the Batman prequel series?
The Court of Owls is a shadowy organization co-created by Batman Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo which kicked off their fan-favorite New 52 run.
James Frain and Jessica Lucas plays the Galavans, a brother/sister villain team which could have deep ties into Gotham City’s history. The introduction of the siblings made fans suspect the Owls might hold court on the series.
In a new ComicBook.com interview Executive Producer/Showrunner Bruno Heller confirmed The Court of Owls will be coming to the Fox series:
“Yeah, absolutely, [I’m interested]. I won’t say that it’s part of – I don’t even want to say that, because I don’t want to spoil part of the story,” Heller said.
“The Court of Owls is deep, deep, deep Gotham mythology. The comic book fans know about it, but I would suspect the larger audience is not so familiar. We sometimes have to make a distinction between the ‘Nolan-era Batman movie fans’ and the comic book fans. It’s not that they’re two separate audiences, just that there are two levels of engagement. Court of Owls is very much deep DC mythology.
“We are absolutely going to explore that world down the line. Looking at the longevity of the show, we have to hold some cards back, we can’t just throw all of the elements, all of the story at once,” he explained – he even noted earlier during the conversation that he felt they made a mistake trying to throw too much into season one. Heller didn’t mince words, though, and did say definitively, “The long arc of the show is Bruce Wayne’s journey of discovery down into the depths of the physical and meta-physical world of Gotham. The Court of Owls is a brilliant conceit that will absolutely be part of our storytelling. I just won’t tell you when.”
The Court of Owls has been secretly manipulating Gotham City since the 1600’s. Members of Gotham’s oldest, richest families have members of the cabal who wear white Owl masks in their gatherings. The group has an army of super soldiers called Talons who enforce their agenda.
The evil organization even inspired this chilling nursery rhyme:
“Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time,
Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.
They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed.
Speak not a whispered word about them, or they’ll send the Talon for your head.”
No official word on when the group will appear on television but The Court of Owls will return to comics in the Robin War crossover in the Batman family of books this December.
By Editor