As Gotham continues into its fifth and final season, Shane West has made his full debut as the classic Batman villain Bane but, according to the actor, he nearly played a much different villain earlier in the series' run.

West had previously worked with Gotham producer Danny Cannon on The CW series Nikita and was approached by the producer sometime after the series ended to potentially play Mister Freeze, who made his debut on the Fox series in its second season.

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"We had a little bit of a go with Mr. Freeze actually. I was excited about that because obviously another iconic Batman villain and once again, at that point, I had never played anyone yet," explained West in an interview with ComicBook.com. "Because I was on Salem and I think the guy who did it was much more right for the role than I was anyway, but I think that it helped things just not working out and then a couple years go by or probably three or four, I'm not even sure of the timeline, but all of the sudden, coming back with something like Bane felt like it was like wow, I think waiting was the right choice."

Freeze would ultimately be portrayed by Nathan Darrow while West continued his commitments with the WGN America series Salem. After Salem ended in 2017, West found himself back in the mix as a much different Batman villain just in time for its final season.

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Airing Thursdays at 8 pm ET/PT on Fox, Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean and Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth.