When we left 'Gotham' following the season 3 finale, there were a lot of threads left hanging to be picked up when the series would make its inevitable return for a fourth season. One of those threads was the fate of Edward Nygma, aka the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), who had been frozen in a black of ice by Mr. Freeze on the orders of Penguin.

Cory Michael Smith (left) as Riddler in 'Gotham' season 3Cory Michael Smith (left) as Riddler in 'Gotham' season 3

The angst between the pair grew when Penguin fell in love with Ed, only to be cast aside by his former best friend. Though it looked like Nygma's time was up, we should expect him to be thawed out before too long.

Looking ahead to the fourth season, Smith teased a little of what viewers can expect from Riddler in upcoming episodes. He told Cinema Blend: "You know, we play a lot with Edward having identity issues, and so this is another identity crisis for him. His mind isn’t functioning at the level that it was. Whether that can be cured or fixed, he doesn’t know, but his computation is not as it was. So what does that make him now? The thing that he had was his intelligence and his ability to trick people and outsmart people, and so he doesn’t have that anymore. So what is there? So he goes on a new quest. I’m really happy, because it allows for a little comedy. Some of the old comedy we had with Ed, we get to find again. Some of his physical and mental ineptitude is back."

Exactly how he'll be escaping his block of ice remains to be seen, but we're sure that once he makes his return to the streets of Gotham, he'll be looking for immediate revenge against his ex-ally. Will he be able to do that without his intelligence, though?

We're sure that this condition isn't something that will last too long, as we know the Riddler to be one of the most intelligent people on the planet, and this is simply his origin story. The damage done to him will probably become less as the fourth season rolls on and we expect that when he does get his wits about him, he'll be more dangerous than ever before.

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'Gotham' season 4 premieres on FOX in the US on September 21, with the show expected to return to the UK on Channel 5 in the near future.