Gotham
David Mazouz shared some details about the villain, Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan). FOX

Many people seem to think that Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) from “Gotham” is the Fox show’s Joker, but this does not seem to be the case.

David Mazouz, who plays the young Bruce Wayne in the show, told Comic Book that Jerome might look and feel like the Joker, but he really isn’t.

“He’s not the Joker, that’s all I’m saying. He’s definitely the inspiration for the Joker and the way that the Joker comes into the show is one of the most brilliant things ‘Gotham’ has ever done,” he said.

Given Mazouz’s comment, does this mean that Jerome will take a backseat when the show returns and let the Joker finally take the spotlight?

To give more background to Mazouz’s statements, it should be recalled that co-executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt earlier said the same thing.

“Obviously Jerome is our homage. He’s obviously not the Joker himself, although [he] clearly seems to be the impetus that eventually creates the Joker. The more that we see him, the more he carves out his own path I’d say. I wouldn’t say he becomes more the Joker, but the Jerome character continues to evolve,” he said.

But his other statements conflict with Mazouz’s, since Wynbrandt said the Joker might never make an appearance at all in “Gotham.”

“When it comes to Joker, he’s so iconic to that Batman character that it feels like we don’t want to get to Joker ever. Jerome feels like he is that origin of that,” he explained.

Whatever the case, Wynbrand is excited for fans to see what they have done with Jerome’s storyline. It has already been revealed that he will form an alliance with Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), and they will wreak havoc in Gotham City.

“This is a very original kind of take on this story and we’re really excited about it because his reintroduction into the Gotham world is going to have him crossing with characters we’ve not yet seen him with. Which is really kind of a theme we’ve been playing with this whole season and something we challenged ourselves over designing this season,” he said.

“Gotham” Season 4 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.