Colin Farrell stole the show in The Batman with his all-too-brief appearance as The Penguin, but the actor is set to bring ol’ Oswald Cobblepot back for the spinoff TV series on HBO Max. It’s been confirmed that The Penguin series will take place after the events of The Batman, but director Matt Reeves confirmed to Collider that it will actually tie into the upcoming sequel as well.
“There’s actually a whole little fabric of things we’re wanting to do,” Matt Reeves said, “the way we’re doing with [the] Penguin and how that comes back into how that will lead into the sequel, and what that sequel is going to be.” Reeves added that they’re going to start shooting The Penguin with Colin Farrell “very, very soon,” which is “super exciting.” Given the ongoing restructuring of the DC Universe now that James Gunn and Peter Safran are in charge, it’s good to know that at least some of the projects we were excited about before the regime change are still moving forward.
HBO Max’s Sarah Aubrey has previously said that the events of the series will pick up immediately after the end of The Batman as it shows Cobblepot’s. “The goal of this is to show what Oz’s life is like, and that’s very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can,” Aubrey said. “As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It is a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It’s very much going to be about Gotham at that street level because he’s not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have.” In addition to Colin Farrell, The Penguin will also star Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, daughter of Carmine Falcone, the crime boss played by John Turturro in the movie. The series will find Sofia fighting with Oswald for control of the city.
What are you hoping to see in The Penguin series, and how are you hoping it will set the stage for The Batman sequel?