And with "Boss" Maroni in play, what does that mean for a certain attorney named Harvey Dent?
Deadline reports that actor David Zayas has been cast as mobster Salvatore "Boss" Maroni in the upcoming Fox television series Gotham. According to the article, the role will be recurring as Maroni "strives to gain more territory in Gotham, he’ll find himself on a crash course with his rival Falcone (John Doman) for control of the city."
Zayas is best known as Angel Batista on the Showtime series Dexter and as Enrique Morales on HBO's Oz. In addition, he's had various roles on The Blacklist, The Following, Person of Interest, Burn Notice, Law & Order, and the movies The Expendables and Rounders.
Created in 1942 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, "Boss" Maroni debuted in the very first Two-Face story in Detective Comics (vol.1) #66. Maroni was put on trial for the murder of the murder of a man named "Bookie" Benson, with Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent serving as prosecutor. Batman provides testimony at the trial, but Maroni calls Batman a liar, leading Dent to show evidence of Maroni's lucky two-headed silver dollar that was found at the murder scene with Maroni's fingerprints on it. Enraged, Maroni hurled a small vial of acid at Dent, horribly disfiguring the left side of Dent's handsome face and transforming him into the insane gangster Two-Face. Later Batman stories organized Maroni as Gotham's number two crime lord under Carmine "The Roman" Falcone.
Zayas will be the second actor to portray Maroni in a signficant live-action role, after Eric Roberts in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight. The character also appeared in 1995's Batman Forever, played by Dennis Paladino, but only in a brief flashback explaining the origin of Two-Face.
Gotham premieres on Fox on September 22, 2014.