Gotham City is underwater and up for grabs on DC’s The Penguin. The limited series ordered at HBO Max spins out of the final minutes of filmmaker Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which ended with Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) wading through the wreckage of the empire once lorded over by Gotham gangster Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Though the Dark Knight detective (Robert Pattinson) foiled the Riddler’s (Paul Dano) killing spree — ultimately saving the mayor-elect with the help of Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) — Batman couldn’t stop the Riddler’s bombs from flooding the city and turning Gotham into a No Man’s Land.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“[The Penguin] starts about a week after the film The Batman ends. So Gotham is still somewhat underwater,” Farrell revealed to Extra in an interview for his new movie The Banshees of Inisherin. “I read the first script for the first episode, and it opens up with my feet splashing through the water in Falcone’s office. Even just that alone, I read it, I was like, ‘Oh, jeez.’ It’s lovely. It’s so well-written.”
Lauren LeFranc (Hemlock Grove, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) writes and serves as showrunner on the Batman spinoff series executive produced by Farrell, Reeves, and Dylan Clark.
LeFranc “has done an extraordinary job,” Farrell added. “She’s writing the whole thing and showrunning, and she’s formidable, and it’s just a very exciting prospect.” On reprising his role in the series tentatively titled The Penguin, Farrell said, “I love that character and I was greedy with it. I felt like I didn’t have enough. I wanted to do it more and more, so now I get the chance.”
The DC drama expands upon the world of Reeves’ budding Bat-verseand centers on Farrell’s Oz, a mid-level mobster who served asFalcone’s chief lieutenant until the crime lord’s assassination at thehands of the Riddler.
“The world that Matt Reeves created for The Batman is one that warrants a deeper gaze through the eyes of Oswald Cobblepot,” Farrell said in a statement announcing HBO Max’s straight-to-series order of the Batman sequel series. “I couldn’t be more excited about continuing this exploration of Oz as he rises through the darkened ranks to become The Penguin. Will be good to get him back on the streets of Gotham for a little madness and a little mayhem.”
Reeves, who also executive produces the as-yet-untitled Arkham Asylum series in development at HBO Max, has likened Oz’s rise to power to Scarface.
“I said [to HBO Max], ‘To be honest with you, the thing that was going to be the seeds of what I thought the next story could be in terms of the Penguin is that I saw there being this kind of ‘American dream in Gotham’ sort of story, almost like Scarface; the rise of this character who we all know will achieve mythic status,’” Reeves told EW. “He is underestimated and he’s like a time bomb… They were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re in!’ And that was really exciting because, by that point, Colin had already given life to this character.”
The Penguin is slated to begin filming in early 2023 and will stream on HBO Max.
