The Penguin: Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb Is "Not Thinking About The Bat At All" (Exclusive)

ComicBook spoke with Farrell at The Penguin world premiere.

By Liam Crowley

Gotham's pawns are slowly falling into place. 2022's The Batman introduced audiences to a new live-action world centered around the Caped Crusader, picking up with Robert Pattinson's titular vigilante in his second year under the cowl. Just as Batman is learning finding his footing in Gotham City, simultaneously so is his rogue's gallery. Director Matt Reeves left off with The Riddler (Paul Dano) forming an unholy alliance with The Joker (Barry Keoghan) inside Arkham Asylum, Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) still a couple of ranks below police commissioner, and The Penguin (Colin Farrell) seeking ascension within Gotham's criminal underground after the death of Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), the latter of which is set to be explored in HBO's The Penguin miniseries.

The Penguin: Colin Farrell's Oz "Not Thinking" About Batman

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(Photo: HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures)

Gotham's Gentleman of Crime is not bothered by Gotham City's new protector.

Speaking to ComicBook at The Penguin world premiere in New York City, star Colin Farrell noted that The Batman's overarching presence within Gotham did not impact his performance as Oz Cobb in the standalone series.

"He's not thinking about The Bat at all," Farrell said. "I'm sure maybe there's a scene we did, a night where he's wondering is that guy gonna turn up, but there's so much s--t happening to him already that the immediate present is something that he's struggling with greatly."

Farrell's Oz and Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight shared the screen three times in The Batman (2022). The two future adversaries first meet in the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub for Gotham's dirtiest, and then come to blows during a car chase. Batman and Jeffrey Wright's Jim Gordon interrogate Oz after running him off the road, ultimately ending with Oz helping the two solve the "el rata alada" riddle.

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"As much as I had some version of a tet-a-tet with him in the film, he's not what he is becoming evermore, and will possibly, I assume, become more of in the second film," Farrell continued. "Oz has other things on his mind, [that being] the immediate present as experienced by how he's tainted by his past. He's very, very focused on the now. He has to be because he's someone who's got so many plates juggling, so many plates in the air. They're all spinning out of control and he's trying to keep his s--t together. He's trying to create this ideal of filling the power vacuum that Carmine Falcone's death has created."

The Penguin premieres on Max on Thursday, September 19th.

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