If there was one unequivocal bright spot for Warner Bros. Pictures in 2022, it was “The Batman.” The Matt Reeves-helmed film made around $770 million at the box office, and was well received by audiences and critics alike. It’s hard to bet against Batman, and WB knew that at the time. They went so far as to greenlight a spin-off series before the film even hit theaters.
Colin Farrell‘s take on The Penguin is really what did it. Early reactions to his makeup test, trailers and featurettes teased what could be with this version of Oswald Cobblepot. (Or as Farrell and others call him, Oz.) About 10 months after “The Batman” appeared in theaters, we know a little bit more about this villainous spin-off.
The Penguin was one of several highlights in the film. While Paul Dano was still very much Paul Dano and Robert Pattinson was still very much Robert Pattinson, Farrell was almost completely unrecognizable beneath the make-up, costuming, and performance itself. Given his position in the Gotham criminal underbelly, his character also had a lot more potential that was left unfulfilled and unexplored; perhaps deliberately.
Some details were recently dropped about the upcoming Penguin mini-series. For the time being, it seems Reeves is creating his own universe of projects, separate from whatever James Gunn and Peter Safran are cooking up for DC Studios. A sequel to “The Batman” is on the horizon, but The Penguin mini-series will help serve as a connecting thread between these films.
“There are some other things we have planned too,” Reeves said. “The BatVerse of what we’re doing has me very, very excited, and I’m very passionate about it. So I’m excited.” We know an additional series, centering on Arkham Asylum, is in the works for HBO Max. It was originally going to focus on the Gotham Police Department, but pivots and reworks have been rumored for the better part of a year. It’ll be interesting to see if we get more of Jeffrey Wright‘s take on Jim Gordon.
As for Penguin, his series will be a lead-in to “The Batman” sequel, according to Reeves. “There’s actually a whole little fabric of things we’re wanting to do, 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,” he said.
If Reeves’ take on Batman is any indication, where “Penguin” goes should be pretty intense. Especially given the events that ended the prior film and the state of Gotham and its underworld.
Batman is one of the few superheroes you can always count on to be bankable; unless he’s being directed by the late Joel Schumacher. Is the Penguin big enough to carry his own series? We saw the idea explored in FOX’s five-season series “Gotham,” but, this would be arguably a more grown-up version.
We’ll let you know what we hear about the series(es), and “The Batman” sequel. Catch the film on HBO Max now.
