Early rumours, prior to the show's debut, suggested that Harley Quinn's bae would appear in every episode sort of. Batman's most iconic villain would allegedly be hinted at, with a different character introduced each week who could end up becoming The Joker. The first (and only) indication of that apparently scrapped plan was the nervous stand-up comic auditioning for Fish Mooney's club in the first episode, echoing the origin story set out in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke. As it happens that was abandoned and instead the most obvious hint at the early days of The Joker came first in the episode Red Hood (a nome de plume the villain used early on) and then the character of Jerome, introduced in The Blind Fortune Teller as a nutball murderer who was killed his promiscuous circus performer mother. What did he do when questioned about the murder by the police? Laughed hysterically and consistently, of course! All hints point to Jerome eventually becoming The Joker, and the show's producers have indeed suggested they want to dive into the character's back story at some point. Jerome's definitely back next season, but will he be The Joker? Probably. So long as there isn't some conflict of interest with the Suicide Squad film. Or Batman V Superman. Or the next proper Batman film. Or...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
