| “ | You can't have both happiness and the truth. You have to choose. I beg of you, my son, please choose happiness. Unless... Unless you feel a calling. A true calling. | „ |
| ~ Thomas Wayne in his letter to Bruce. |
Thomas Wayne is the overarching protagonist of the television series Gotham and the deuteragonist of its prequel Pennyworth.
History[]
Murder[]
After going to see a movie along with his wife Martha and their son Bruce, they cut down an alleyway where a masked man branding a gun ordered them to hand over belongings. Although Thomas and Martha complied, the gunman shot them both regardless and ran off into the night, leaving Bruce to scream in anguish over his parent's bodies. Detective James Gordon promised Bruce that he would find the man responsible for his parent's death.
Post-Mortem[]
Bruce and his guardian/butler Alfred Pennyworth discover a hidden passageway behind the fireplace of Wayne Manor, belonging to Thomas. It led to a room underground filled with computers, body armour and equipment. Bruce discovered a letter addressed to him from his father, to either choose happiness or the truth, as he couldn't find both. Bruce began to unravel more about what Thomas was up to, which seemed to imply he was working against a higher power. It is also revealed that Hugo Strange put a hit out on both Thomas and Martha, as Thomas had closed down a project run by Strange involving inhumane experimentation.
During Gotham's isolation from the mainland, Bruce's mentally unstable former friend Jeremiah Valeska had a couple kidnapped and used plastic surgery to have them resemble Thomas and Martha Wayne, and used the Mad Hatter's hypnotic abilities to make them believe they are the pair. He forced Bruce to recreate the last day his parents were alive, with Jeremiah intending to insert himself into the situation in the place of their real killer Matches Malone, who was now deceased. Jeremiah killed the doppelgangers, and instead brainwashed Bruce's close friends James Gordon and Lee Thompkins, intending to traumatise him again and seal them as enemies forever. With the help of Selina Kyle they managed to stop Jeremiah enacting his plan.
Appearances[]
Season 1[]
- "Pilot"
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The implication of Thomas Wayne possibly working his way towards becoming a vigilante is most likely a reference to his Flashpoint counterpart from the comics, in which Thomas Wayne was Batman in an alternative timeline.
- Thomas Wayne appears as a protagonist in the prequel tie-in novel Gotham: Dawn of Darkness, which takes place two months prior to the murder of him and his wife in the first episode.