“What killed the dinosaurs? The Ice Age!”
The roster of villains in Gotham season two continues to grow, as during the midseason finale, Mr. Freeze stormed his way into the city.
The ice-cold villain, portrayed by House of Cards actor Nathan Darrow, was only teased in the final minutes of the latest episode, but it looks like we’ll be seeing more of the cool character later this season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_SesJc_Dk
Darrow recently sat down with USA Today and discussed how Freeze (Victor Fries) will be developed later this season. Specifically, he emphasized that Victor’s actions are motivated by his wife.
“Victor has one central intimate human connection, and that’s with his wife,” Darrow explained. “There’s something really, really interesting and vulnerable and difficult about that. Of course, that is threatened by her illness. In some of the research I did on the character as he has evolved in the comic book, he has a more tenuous connection with humanity and his own humanity, and she’s it. He is applying all his talents and skills and energies to maintaining that.”
Darrow is referring to one of the most defining characteristics about Mr. Freeze: his crimes are motivated by his desire to find a cure for his terminally ill wife, Nora.
This origin story for the character was popularized through Batman: The Animated Series, in the episode “Heart of Ice” (absolutely worth a watch).
Darrow joins a number of other classic Batman foes that will debut on Gotham later this year, notably including B.D. Wong as Hugo Strange.
Let’s hope Darrow delivers a performance that rivals Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chilling take on the character in Batman and Robin.
Alright, enough with the puns. Schwarzenegger’s Freeze is actually hilariously terrible.
Gotham will return to Fox in February.
