"Prenatal Robin" Coming To 'Gotham' While Harley Quinn Sits The Season Out

Fox's Gotham is practically drowning in future supervillains, so it's nice to hear there's a future superhero on the way. Though he probably won't be of much help to Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne right now, seeing as he hasn't even been born yet.

Showrunner Bruce Heller revealed that a "prenatal Robin" storyline is in the works for Gotham. Also coming in a future episode is the return of the pint-sized Poison Ivy — though her BFF Harley Quinn will be sitting this season out. Hit the jump for more on the planned Robin Gotham plot.

I can't wait to see what form the heavyhanded foreshadowing takes with this one. Are the Graysons going meet at a Red Robin? Will we see them paint the nursery robin's egg blue? Might an actual robin will sit outside the hospital window singing while Mrs. Grayson gives birth? Knowing this show, it could be all three and then some.

Though it feels at times like Gotham is introducing familiar characters as quickly as Heller can think of them, the showrunner stresses that they're trying hard not to rush things. Case in point: While fan favorite baddie Harley Quinn is "definitely planned for later on," she's not part of the plan for this season. Heller said:

You can't just keep pumping these characters into the show in a comic book sort of way, because you get the Super Friends effect—which isn't a bad effect, but then you have spaceships and need to go underwater and get wacky villains and the rest of it. You have to work as a character piece first. First it has to be real.

Heller assured EW that the pace at which Gotham reveals new characters is carefully considered. "That aspect of the show—which characters to use and when — is a source of constant discussion." He further explained:

We front-loaded [the show with iconic characters], which we had to do, both for story purposes and marketing purposes. We had to let people know it's not just a hum-drum police procedural, it's about these larger than life characters. If you do that you can't just say, 'Here's one larger-than-life character, now wait for next season.' Once we introduced those initial characters—Penguin, Riddler, Ivy, Selina—then we've slowed down with those aspects and we're bringing in those iconic D.C characters in a much more measured way, which was always the intention. You have to have that amount of spice in the show to make it pop and different. Once the wheels are turning, it's much easier to bring those characters in in subtle, organic ways. That's the plan, anyway.

But never fear, they're not slowing things down too much. Although Harley Quinn won't appear in Season 1, Heller does promise Poison Ivy will resurface in the near future. And that "Riddler's girlfriend is coming up." The Joker will eventually appear as well, after some teasing, but Heller isn't revealing too much about his backstory yet.

Are you looking forward to "prenatal Robin," or do you wish Gotham would wait until after his birth to bring him in?