Matt Reeves’ upcoming sequel to “The Batman” may have been delayed to 2026, but fans will still have a chance to revisit his dark version of Gotham City later this year. Reeves is producing “The Penguin,” an upcoming Max spinoff series that sees Colin Farrell reprising his role as the villainous mob boss Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot as he rebuilds his crime operation after the events of “The Batman.”
Farrell’s prosthetic-laden performance as Oz (better known by his criminal alias “The Penguin”) was seen by many as a high point of “The Batman” despite only appearing in a handful of scenes. In a new interview with MovieZine, Farrell teased that the show won’t hold back from exploring the brutality of the character.
“It’s dark, that’s what I can tell you about it,” Farrell said of the series, which hails from showrunner Lauren LeFranc. “It’s really dark. It’s really heavy, I think — it certainly was doing it. Which is not to say I didn’t have fun, I had an amazing time doing it. It’s incredibly violent. It’s one man’s rise to what he’s always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status.”
Farrell went on to say that the absence of John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone, who ruled over Oswald in the first film, gives the character room to truly pursue his grandiose ambitions.
“The death of Carmine Falcone at the end of [‘The Batman’] leaves this vacuum in Gotham to be filled, and so there are various people that are grabbing for that power,” he said. “This is Oswald’s journey trying to rise to the top through extraordinary obstacles.”
Farrell has long been an advocate for the character of The Penguin, explaining that he pushed for the series after feeling like “The Batman” didn’t showcase everything Oswald had to offer.
“I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more,” Farrell said in 2023. “We have to get into what made him the man he is. And also, it will pick up where this film finished off, I think. I think it’ll pick up a little short time after the last frame of this film. We’ll get to go on a little kind of left turn off to the world of Oz and how he’s beginning to kind of dream of filling a potential power vacuum that may exist.”
“The Penguin” is expected to stream on Max in Fall 2024.
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