The Batman’s Matt Reeves Reveals What They Call Their Cinematic Universe

The world of Matt Reeves’s The Batman is set to expand soon with the release of The Penguin, an HBO series that centers on Colin Farrell’s fan-favorite depiction of Oswald Cobblepot as he negotiates his way to the top of Gotham’s criminal underworld. And while there have been some bumps in the road and at least two projects cancelled along the way, Reeves’s Bat-universe is getting another, as-yet-unannounced spinoff soon. Meanwhile, of course, the filmmaker is one of the principal minds behind Batman: Caped Crusader, an animated series at Prime Video that may not be part of the world of The Batman but shares a lot of sensibilities with Reeves’s movie.

It’s a world that will soon have two movies, two shows, and that weird animated second cousin we just mentioned. Reeves says that he and his collaborator Dylan Clark have internally been calling it the “Batman Epic Crime Saga.”

In an interview with EW, Reeves suggests that his overall deal at Warner Bros. came about, in part, because he wanted to set up a shared universe of big-name Batman characters.

“As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do,” Reeves said. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”  

The Penguin is set almost immediately following The Batman (and before The Batman 2), and follows “Oz” Cobblepot stepping into the organized crime void left by his boss Carmine Falcone – not to mention the total collapse of Gotham in Riddler’s attack.

“The goal of this is to show what Oz’s life is like and that’s very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can,” HBO head of originals Sarah Aubrey said when the show was announced back in 2022. “As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It is a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It’s very much going to be about Gotham at that street level, because he’s not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have.”

The Penguin will premiere in September on both HBO and Max.