While fans can look forward to Colin Farrell reprising his villainous Oswald Cobblepot role in The Penguin, they should not expect to see Robert Pattinson’s Batman.
The HBO series is a spin-off of the 2022 movie The Batman, however, it centers on Farrell’s character trying to seize the reins of the crime world in Gotham.
“I understand why people’s desire would be to have Batman, or to think that unless Batman’s in a show or a film then it doesn’t have the same punch,” showrunner Lauren LeFranc recently explained to SFX magazine. “To me I think it packs a different punch. Matt’s films are through the lens of the Batman, so you’re high up, looking down on the city. It’s a different perspective. With Oz, you’re in the city streets, you’re in the grit and the muck and the grime. He’s looking up, wanting to claw his way to the top.”
LeFranc also described The Penguin as a “different experience,” adding, “I think Gotham is an interesting enough city that it deserves to have more doors unlocked within it, and for us to walk through those and see what we think.”
Reeves, who served as an executive producer on the new series, also tried to ease fans’ fears, saying he doesn’t “feel like it’s missing something fundamental.”
“I feel like it’s an extension of what is fundamentally there. We know this is the world of Batman,” the filmmaker added. “You’re going down a different alley. So the spectre of Batman is there. The spectre of the Riddler is there. The spectre of everything that happens in the last movie is there. It informs it. And it’s exactly where we begin.”
The Penguin is set to premiere on HBO and Max on Sept. 19. Reeves is also working on The Batman sequel, due out in 2026.
