Jada Pinkett Smith Joins Gotham as Fish Mooney—Get the Details!

There's a new gangster in Gotham City. Get the Gotham casting scoop!

By Chris Harnick Feb 19, 2014 4:00 PMTags
Jada Pinkett SmithMick Hutson/Getty Images for Chime for Change

There's a new villain in Gotham City and she's none other than Jada Pinkett Smith. The HawthoRNe star has signed on to play Fish Mooney in Gotham on Fox.

The character, which is original to the show, is described as a hothead "sadistic gangster boss" and owns one of Gotham's hottest nightclubs. She's got street smarts and "almost extra-sensory abilities to read people like an open book."

Gotham chronicles the beginnings of Batman's rogues gallery. Southland star Ben McKenzie stars as James Gordon, the man who will one day become Batman's trusted ally and commissioner of the Gotham City police. Donal Logue has been tapped to play Detective Harvey Bullock, Gordon's partner.

"I'm super excited. Gotham—it was weird, I've never been on a ride like that…I met them and talked to them and there was some weird internet rumor that I was playing Commissioner Gordon—he wasn't the commissioner at the time—and I'm like, ‘I'm way too old, man!' It was weird to be part of this kind of ongoing discussion that I was not in the mix of," Logue told E! News in February. "It's an exciting thing; it's going to be here in New York. It's one of those funny things where they're super secretive, so you have to go to a secret place to read a script and give away your phone."

The announced cast also includes Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot, the man who will eventually become the Penguin; Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler; Zabryna Guevara as Captain Essen, Gordon and Bullock's boss; and Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, Gordon's fiancé. In Gotham, Bruce Wayne will be a 12-year-old boy.

Bruno Heller of The Mentalist fame wrote the pilot script and will serve as executive producer. Danny Cannon will direct and executive produce the pilot.

Gotham already has a series order at Fox. No premiere date has been set.