'Gotham' Star Robin Lord Taylor Addresses Joker/Cobblepot Rumors

If you've been watching "Gotham" this TV season, you've probably been enjoying the rise of Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin, through the ranks of Gotham City's criminal underground.

Fans have been wondering of late, though, whether Cobblepot really is who the show says he is.

A fan theory has picked up momentum among fans of the pre-Batman prequel that Oswald Cobblepot isn't actually The Penguin, but will actually turn out to be The Joker. But what does Robin Lord Taylor, who plays Cobblepot on the show, think about the theory?

"I find it incredibly unlikely, but at the same time, I have no idea what could happen," Taylor said. "I read it, and I was like, ‘Huh.’ I was like, ‘Nah.’ But then I was so impressed at the detail that this person went into… the guy who formulated this theory. I was just amazed at the amount of attention that people are paying to the show. I mean, he was looking at the colors of my vest and my suit, and extrapolating off of that."

We tend to agree with Robin. First off, there's the fact that this character is named Oswald Cobblepot, which is the name of The Penguin in every Batman story ever told. If he suddenly turned out to be The Joker, that would imply that the two are the same person, which would be a major change to the Batman universe.

There's also the fact that, in almost every Batman story, Joker becomes Joker because of Batman. Joker's origin story is muddy and has never been confirmed as canon, but more often than not Batman is either a direct or indirect cause of his madness and his decision to be a sort of antithesis to the Dark Knight.

So, with Bruce Wayne still a kid in prep school, it doesn't make much sense that Joker would come to exist in the current "Gotham" timeline.

Then again, the show has taken a few liberties with some of the show's characters: for example, Edward Nygma (aka The Riddler) works for the Gotham City Police Department, an origin story that has never been told in Batman fiction before. So who knows? Anyone could be The Joker.