List of Gotham (franchise) characters

The Gotham franchise is a media franchise and shared fictional universe that is the setting of television series, novels, and comic book series developed by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, produced by DC Entertainment and based on characters that appear in DC Comics publications. The franchise began with the American crime television series Gotham, based on characters (primarily James "Jim" Gordon and Bruce Wayne / Batman) appearing in DC's Batman franchise.

Gotham, starring Ben McKenzie as a young Gordon, premiered in the United States on September 22, 2014 on the Fox television network and concluded on April 25, 2019 after five seasons. Heller and Cannon next developed Pennyworth, a spin-off prequel series to Gotham starring Jack Bannon as a younger incarnation of Gotham's Alfred Pennyworth. Pennyworth aired for two seasons on Epix from July 28, 2019 to April 11, 2021. A third season, also loosely adapting V for Vendetta, aired on HBO Max from October 6 to November 24, 2022.

As originally conceived, Gotham would have served as a straightforward story of Gordon's early days on the Gotham City Police Department. The idea eventually evolved to not only include Wayne's "transformation" into Batman but also to explore the origin stories of several of his villains such as Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman. Pennyworth similarly explores Pennyworth's early life during the British Civil War, as he and Americans Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane seek to prevent the fascist Raven Society from overtaking the British government.

In addition to directly adapted characters from DC Comics, many other characters in the show are based on, inspired by, or otherwise references to preexisting characters (though they may not be identical to these original sources).