The following contains spoilers for Gotham Knights Season 1, Episode 1, "Pilot," which aired on The CW on March 14.
In the Gotham Knights premiere, Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan) is struggling with Bruce Wayne being killed. As Bruce's adopted son, his estate should go to him, but Turner is now pinned for the crime as it looks like Bruce wanted to shift the inheritance away. It sends the teen on the run with other persons of interest.
One is Duela Dent (played by Olivia Rose Keegan), who claims to be the Joker's daughter. Eventually, along with Harper and Cullen Row, they form a team, hoping to clear their names. However, it's obvious the show wants to remix the chaotic Batman-Joker dynamic of old, having Duela and Turner engaging in intriguing banter over fathers and secrets. It leaves fans suspicious, though, with one sequence having her pay homage to Heath Ledger's Joker in an ominous way.
Gotham Knights' Duela Dent Has Joker's Sinister Sarcasm
Early on, Duela and the Rows are interrogated. They don't realize the cops are corrupt, working for the Court of Owls, but Duela holds her own when grilled in isolation. She shoots back snarky remarks, as well as some harsh truths, which leaves Harvey Dent (Misha Collins) wondering if he can really prosecute them. The cops suggest she killed Bruce for money, as they found a bank trace, or that she murdered the Batman who killed Joker out of revenge.
However, Duela does her own version of Heath Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight. Her intonations, smiles, sass, eye movements and posture, not to mention the room itself, mimic that exchange with Joker, Christian Bale's Batman and Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon. Duela even has principle, pointing out if she wanted revenge, she'd do it for free, so the police's logic makes no sense. It's akin to how Joker took shots at society, the system and the cops being inept, with Duela sparring and pointing out the hypocrisy at play, sending chills down Harvey's spine the way Jim got his.
Gotham Knights Could Make Duela a Sympathetic Joker
In the comics, Duela claimed to be the Joker's daughter, but one iteration had her as Harvey and Gilda Dent's daughter. The New 52 shifted her into a fangirl who wore the Joker's skin, placing his severed face over hers to become his successor. However, she turned out to be the Jokester's daughter with Three-Face, hailing from Earth-3. In a sense, she's a Joker's daughter, but not the mainstream one.
Given how Duela cuts the Joker energy so well -- complete with her backstory of a mom getting pregnant by him in Arkham Asylum before he bolted with Harley Quinn -- she may well end up being Joker's daughter rather than a misdirection. The fake-out, however, could come with saying she doesn't want to be a Joker as her maniacal tendencies say otherwise. This is most notably seen when Turner has to stop her from killing a cop when they escape. Clearly, she wants disorder and to make people pay for how society shunned forgotten kids like her, as opposed just loving anarchy.
The development nods to Flashpoint's Martha Wayne who become a sociopathic Joker after losing Bruce, using loss and tragedy as a catalyst. Given the Court of Owls is scheming and framing her, Duela could now unleash the clown inside. She could try to cleanse Gotham the way Ledger's Joker wanted for allowing the elite and nasty politicians to use the lower-classes as pawns. If anything, Bruce's death in Gotham Knights' premiere and them being hunted would compound her point about how influence is wielded. Ultimately, it would give Turner an emotional attachment to his Joker, hoping he can genuinely redeem her before she crosses the line the way her father did in what may well be a pseudo-righteous cause.
New episodes of Gotham Knights air Tuesdays on The CW.