Warner Bros. Was Reportedly Interested in Seth Rogen for Penguin Role in The Batman

DC’s The Batman reboot movie has been making big headlines this week with new casting news – like Zoe Kravitz landing the role of Catwoman. Now comes a new report that states Warner Bros. and director Matt Reeves couldn’t come to deal to cast Jonah Hill in The Batman, despite rumors that the Wolf of Wall Street actor was in talks for an iconic Batman villain role. However, included in the report that Hill is out of The Batman comes another headline-worthy reveal: Apparently Warner Bros. was also eyeing Seth Rogen for a villain role in The Batman!

As Deadline reports, Seth Rogen was eyed for a role as The Penguin in The Batman, though it’s unclear if that is still one of Warner Bros. and Matt Reeves’ casting goals:

“We heard that there was interest from the production in Seth Rogen for the role of the Penguin, however, but I hear no offers or talks occurred.”

These details about The Batman casting process and its current state are still coming to light, so it’s hard to know from Deadline‘s phrasing above if Seth Rogen is still on the list of actors the studio will be approaching, or if the process has moved on.

Update: According to Borys Kit of of THR, Rogen being considered for The Batman was a part of the early process of also trying to land Jonah Hill for Riddler – and that neither casting hope ultimately worked out:

“On the Seth Rogen BATMAN rumor: there were some initial talks for him to play Penguin while WB courted Hill for Riddler (once they settled on him actually playing Riddler and not Penguin), but that too didn’t work out.” —Borys Kit

It’s interesting to learn what kind of cast Matt Reeves and the studio were trying to put together for The Batman: in fact, the notion of Robert Pattinson playing Batman against a Seth Rogen Penguin and Jonah Hill Riddler sounds like early 2010s fan-casting by a high school kid. Now that it’s not happening, it’s almost certainly going to be mocked as yet another strange case of DC movie casting under Warner Bros. Ironically enough, the most readily accepted casting for The Batman so far has been the usually-volatile race-switch casting of Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, and the casting of Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman. DC fans are all good with that (go figure…).

For now, we’ll keep you updated on the state of The Batman cast, as more news develops.

Joker is now in theaters. Upcoming DC Movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2020.