The Batman: Colin Farrell Teases Penguin’s History, HBO Max Spinoff

The Batman is already looking to expand its Gotham City universe, with a Gotham PD spinoff series heading to HBO Max and a series centered around Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot also coming to the streaming service. Farrell makes his debut as the famous DC Comics villain known as The Penguin in The Batman, covered in an intense, impressively designed prosthetic which makes his face unrecognizable. As The Batman gears up to hit theaters, Farrell is getting ready to tell more of the Cobblepot story in Gotham’s criminal worlds.

Farrell tells ComicBook.com that he has learned “bits and pieces,” of the larger story which will belong to Cobblepot as the franchise expands beyond The Batman. “There’s been some conversations.” Those conversations have indicated there are several hours worth of story to tell with Penguin.

“Like this film was, I think all of the actors you know, Zoe, Paul, John, and Jeffrey, Rob, myself it was such a collaborative experience,” Farrell said. “When films are this size, it’s not always as creatively collaborative as Matt [Reeves] allowed this film to be. Matt had very particular ideas of what the world was gonna look like, and the inner life of each character. But he wanted us all to bring our own sense of history, and our own ideas.”

Those ideas are going to take more than one film to be fleshed out when it comes to Penguin. “So far, the experience of maybe bringing Os into a six or eight hour journey is the same, it’s really collaborative,” Farrell said. The series is set to pick up where The Batman leaves off, a point in the story which audiences will become privy to on March 4. “The writer, Lauren LeFranc has some extraordinary ideas,” Farrell said. “And it’s just that it’s kind of an amazing character to explore, his kind of awkwardness, and his strength, and his villainy, yes, his propensity for violence. But there’s also a heartbroken man inside there you know, which just makes it really tasty. I would love to do it. I won’t believe it until I’m in the suit, and in Mike Marino’s makeup, and I hear action, then I’ll believe and see.”

There is no official word yet on when the Penguin-centric series will start filming or release on HBO Max. It seems the filmmakers and cast of The Batman are very interested in fleshing out Gotham City, with Reeves sharing insights regarding how to handle villains like Mr. Freeze. Robert Pattinson seems to believe fantastical heroes and villains from the pages of DC Comics would have a hard time fitting into this grounded world. All of this leads to the Penguin being the perfect next installment to the franchise, as audiences get a chance to explore Gotham City in this brand new universe.

Are you excited for a Penguin series on HBO Max? share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! The Batman hits theaters on March 4.