Jessica Miglio/FOXEver since Ben McKenzie was picked to play the lead in Gotham, he's all everyone's been talking about.
It's pretty obvious why, too. He's the perfect choice to play a pre-Batman Detective James Gordon who is intent on cleaning up the streets of Gotham from corruption and crime, and this is definitely the role that will define The O.C. alum in years to come.
But really, all we want to talk about is McKenzie's co-star Robin Lord Taylor, AKA the guy who is about to steal the show when Gotham premieres tonight!
Taylor stars as Oswald Cobblepot, the guy destined to become one of Batman's biggest enemies, the Penguin. But in Gotham, Oswald is just a lowly henchman, working for Jada Pinkett Smith's villainous Fish Mooney. In the first episode, viewers will see Oswald begin his journey of becoming the Penguin, and it's an extremely dark one. Taylor manages to make you love and loathe Oswald all at once.
When the Gotham casting directors, Sharon Bialy and Sherry Thomas, approached casting the role of Oswald, they had an idea of who they wanted. "The important quality for Penguin was sort of an introverted sensibility," Thomas previously told us. "And you know a beekiness did help but it wasn't required."
And thankfully, both Thomas and Bialy already had Taylor on their radar. "A few years back, he was very close, it was between him and Jesse Plemmons to play creepy Todd on Breaking Bad," Thomas revealed. "Ultimately he knew there were pieces to Jesse Plemmons that were more right. So, Robin had been on our radar and we had also put him in season four of The Walking Dead. So in our meeting, we said there's this kid Robin Lord Taylor that would be a fantastic Penguin and we put him on tape right away. And he was it."
E! News caught up with Taylor at the Gotham premiere, and the breakout star couldn't stop gushing about how playing the Penguin is "a dream come true." According to Taylor, the prequel series will give fans of Batman a new look into this universe and characters they've known for so long.
"If you have any interest in the world [of Batman], what we're showing you is what forms everything that comes after that," Taylor says. "People will lock into the story and the humanity that we're bringing to these characters. They're not just comic book characters, they're actual people that I think people will identify with."
Check out our full interview with Taylor above to see what else he had to say, including what it's like to work with Smith!
Gotham premieres Monday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. on Fox.