I confess I could not resist in nominating another member of the Gotham cast for Novembers DC World Hall of Fame. Chris Chalk embodied the role of Lucius Fox straight away in Gotham when he appeared for only one episode in season 1.
Born on December 7th 1984 Christopher Eugene Chalk is an American television, film and theatre actor. Chris also gets credits for being a writer, director, speaker and artist. Chris is known for his role as journalist Gary Cooper in The Newsroom, Marine Tom Walker in Homeland and murderer Jody Adair in Justified. Chris also appeared in the 2013 film 12 years a slave. In 2010 Chris appeared on Broadway as Cory in the play Fences. Chris shared the stage with Denzel Washington who played his father and Viola Davis played his mother. Chris also worked on other projects in between filming Gotham in 2016/2017 which deserve a mention, the drama history series Underground and the film Detroit, which is fact based film set during the 1967 Detrioit riots.
Lucius Fox first appeared in the DC comics in Batman #307 which was published in January 1979. Lucius was introduced as Bruce Wayne’s business manager at Wayne Enterprises, who runs the business interests that supply Batmans equipment needs as well as financing his operations.
I naturally thought of Morgan Freeman playing Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, but with Chris Chalk playing a younger version in Gotham since Season 1 I felt we got a great origin story. Chris first appeared in one of my favourite episodes of Gotham The Anvil or the Hammer, Bruce ( David Mazouz) meets Lucius Fox for the first time. Bruce thinks he is being escorted from Wayne Enterprises after setting off the fire alarm so he could gain entry to a safe that might contain information to his parents death, by a business executive but Lucius quickly informs Bruce that he respected and knew his father Thomas well, and considered him a true stoic.
Chris Chalk was made a permanent member of the Gotham cast in season 2, and straight away Lucius has scenes that are very rememberable. Alfred Pennyworth instantly seeks Lucius out to see if he is trustworthy, as he needs him to fix the computer that he smashed up in Thomas Wayne’s secret cave. In season 2 it is quickly apparent that Lucius is probably one of the only sane characters in Gotham. Realising Bruce had been kidnapped by Theo Galavan, with Jim Gordon missing himself, Lucius solved one of Edward Nygma’s riddles, much to his annoyance, to find out the whereabouts of Jim Gordon. Lucius witnesses a rescue mission to save Bruce led by one of Gothams biggest criminals The Penguin and Detective Jim Gordon.
One of the many things I have enjoyed about Chris Chalks portrayal of Lucius Fox is the secrets of Wayne Enterprises he keeps to himself and willing to share if needed. When Victor Fries was going around freezing people with manufactured liquid helium, Lucius revealed to Bullock and Gordon that was used as part of a cryogenics program which Thomas Wayne had shut down. Lucius even managed to find another identity to Professor Hugo Strange who was also known to Bruces father as “The Philosopher” and another secret project titled Pinewood, which leads Lucius to helping Bruce uncover the secrets of Indian Hill hidden beneath Arkham Asylum.
There was a big change of career for Lucius Fox in season 3 and 4 as he joined the GCPD as their new resident expert on all things scientific as Wayne Enterprises revealed themselves as morally corrupt. Luicus and Captain Harvey make a surprisingly entertaining duo on screen, but it’s Chris scenes with Cory Michael Smith who plays Edward “The Riddler” Nygma that brings out just how calm and brave Lucius can be when under pressure. The episode titled How The Riddler Got His Name, Riddler decided he needed a new enemy, that being Jim Gordon. Lucius meanwhile notices a pattern in Nygma’s murders and the riddle hidden in the fruit singing gram sent to the GCPD, Lucius becomes Nygma’s new enemy. Foxy as Nygma likes to call him is one of the smartest men in Gotham, after solving a riddle to save Bullocks life Nygma takes Lucius hostage in his very fine classic sports car. Nygma confessing to Lucius about shooting Oswald Cobblepot and thanking Lucius as he helped Ed realise he doesn’t need anyone as he can bring out The Riddler on his own.
From working on an antidote to stop the Alice Tetch virus, getting intoxicated and infatuated by Ivy and revealing Lucius learnt Jui Juistu ( Chris actually studies and practices this in real life) to supplying Bruce with his first “rock climbing gear” which happened to be bullet proof, Chris Chalk’s Lucius Fox is an essential cast member of Gotham. Chris recently joined the cast of Gotham at New York Comic Con in October 2019 to discuss just how he definitely sees Lucius as one of the saneist men in Gotham and wonders if Lucius goes home at night thinking what he witnesses in Gotham on a daily basis is normal. Chris describes Lucius relationship with Bruce just as important as it is with Alfred, as far as Lucius is considered if Bruce left Gotham so would Lucius Fox.
With so many great moments between Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth I cannot wait to see how they expand the ever growing trusted alliance between these three characters in the final season of Gotham.
Here is th link to vote for Chris Chalk into the semi final of Dcworld Hall of Fame.
https://dcworld.org.uk/hall-of-fame/
