The Penguin Showrunner Compares Series to Scarface

A classic gangster story in the vein of that foundational movie.

By Aaron Perine

The Penguin series is being compared to a "Scarface story" by the series showrunner. Empire Magazine has so much information about The Batman villain and Lauren LeFranc wants to share. The series creator told the outlet that this is a complicated individual and fans were going to be surprised by the depth behind this bad guy. "Mobsters historically are larger than life, so there is that slightly elevated quality to it, but he's just a man," says LeFranc. "A very complicated man." These sort of tropes find their way into a lot of crime stories and The Penguin is no different. Matt Reeves was clearly shooting for these kinds of gritty details in The Batman. So, the thread continues with this HBO and Max original. Oz's journey to become the top of the Gotham underworld starts now.

"This is what differentiates him from previous versions of The Penguin in the comics, where he used to come from a wealthy, well-known family," LeFranc mentioned. "Matt had already made him an underdog in that he was number two to Carmine Falcone in the film, but we didn't know anything about his family. So it was important to me that he comes from nothing, and he's really aching to get more status and be seen as more important.

Epic Universe Has Been Brewing For A While

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(Photo:

Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb in The Penguin

- Max)

Once the trailer for The Penguin hit, fans were assured that the hard-hitting, violent tone of The Batman was present in it spinoff. Upon seeing footage from the series, Warner Bros. Discovery brass decided to brand The Penguin as an HBO Original rather than its original Max branding. In addition to that move, the show will also be airing on HBO as opposed to just streaming. (But never fear, streaming fans, The Penguin will still be available to stream on the platform as well.) So, people can get ready for all the carnage. MovieZine spoke to Colin Farrell about his return to Gotham and what it means for the future of this franchise.

"It was a long and really wonderful experience," Farrell shared. "It's dark; that's what I can tell you about it. 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."

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"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," Farrell continued. "This is Oswald's journey trying to rise to the top through extraordinary obstacles."

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