The Penguin: DC Fans Conflicted About Oz Cobb’s Name Change – Is It Key for The Batman 2?

DC’s The Penguin TV series has premiered on HBO and continues the story of Gotham City that began in The Batman (2022) movie. As we’ve stated in our reviews and podcasts of The Penguin, this spinoff series highlights corners of Gotham, its underworld history, and mob world characters who didn’t get as much time in the spotlight during The Batman. With Colin Farrell’s Penguin now center stage, the issue of the name change from “Oswald Cobblepot” to “Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobb” has become much more prominent within the DC fandom. 

The Penguin Director Explains Why Oz’s Name Was Changed 

The Penguin director and executive producer Craig Zobel has said that the name change was part of Matt Reeves’ overall vision for The Batman Universe being populated with villains that have ‘more realistic’ names. 

“We all kind of felt Cobblepot wasn’t a real person’s name. Like how The Riddler was “Edward Nigma – E. Nigma?” It was kind of a silly name back in the day – and that was ok for comic books for kids,” Zobel told Hollywood Handle. “In some ways, I think the goal was trying to find a more grounded and rooted name. I also know that’s upset some fans and I hope they can forgive us and still like the show. I think it’s not a huge sin [laughs].”

The tweets about Penguin are heavy with debate about the name change – take this one for example: “It’s so weird to change Penguin’s name to Oswald Cobb. Sure Cobbelpot is a bit silly, but plenty of people have silly names in real life. It just lacks self awareness, I mean the guys street name is Penguin, is that realistic?”

Is Oz Cobb’s Name An Easter Egg For The Batman 2? 

There’s a popular theory floating around that Matt Reeves didn’t just land on the name “Oz Cobb” randomly. In DC’s Batman comic book lore, there is a William Cobb from Gotham, who became one of the elite assassins (or “Talons”) of the clandestine Court of Owls. 

William Cobb was a middle-class boy who tried to be a street performer to help earn money for his family by juggling and ended up at Haly’s Circus, which was also a recruiting ground for the Court of Owls to find new Talons. William was recruited and trained as a Talon, successfully assassinating scores of targets; when his illicit love affair with the daughter of one of Gotham’s wealthy elitist families fell apart, he stole their baby and delivered it to the circus master, who renamed the baby “Grayson” – making William Cobb the ancestor of Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing. 

Like The Penguin’s twisted homage to the Batman and Robin partnership, there’s speculation that The Batman 2 will flip the Cobb bloodline to being Oz’s instead of Dick’s. The Court of Owls is still heavily speculated for the sequel film, based on the idea that Gotham’s flooding would be an event upsets the Illuminati-style group’s long-term schemes and machinations – and/or exposes their ‘city within the city’ to Batman and other players (Penguin). Secrets and information are some fo the Court’s most powerful weapons to maintain control – and when they fail, there are the Talons to do some killing for them. 

DC lore has had “Oswald Cobblepot” related to Gotham’s oldest and most powerful families in certain tellings; The Batman Universe could really flip things on their head if Oz Cobb discovers, at some point, that his deep-seated belief that he deserves more and should be in a higher place in Gotham’s power hierarchy turns out to be more than a psychotic delusion of grandeur. 

Craig Zobel couldn’t completely dismiss the theory of Penguin’s name change intentionally setting up the Court of Owls: “I can’t 100% answer that, because I don’t know everything in Matt Reeves’ mind.” So perhaps there is a longer game at play here…

Based on everything we saw in The Penguin’s premiere episode, The Batman Universe definitely has its long game on point. 

The Penguin is now streaming on Max and airing Sunday nights at 9pm ET on HBO.