The next Batman movie was just pushed back but the next Batman story is coming later this year. It’s The Penguin, an eight-part series starring Colin Farrell as the crime boss he portrayed in the 2022 Matt Reeves film.
Reportedly set after the events of that film, the show will follow Farrell’s character Oz Cobb as he continues to rise, and take power, in the criminal underworld of Gotham City. It’ll be out this fall exclusively on Max and here’s the first trailer.
There’s not much to go on, but what is there seems pretty telling. First of all is Farrell’s performance. He was great in The Batman but even just in this one scene, you get a sense of why he’d want to reprise a role that’s obviously such a physical challenge. This character has some meat on its bones, in more ways than one, and it looks like he’s going to dig right in.
What exactly that entails though remains murky, at least in this trailer. There are lots of quick shots of cast members like Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, and Michael Zegen, but no explanations of who they are or how they fit in. We can extrapolate these are members of Cobb’s family, crime partners, rivals, and more, but nothing is certain. What is certain is that by the end of this series, we should have a much clearer picture of Penguin’s place in this Matt Reeves Batman universe.
The Penguin is executive produced by Reeves, Farrell, Dylan Clark, and Lauren LeFranc, who also writes and is the showrunner. There’s also Craig Zobel, who directs the first three episodes, and Bill Carraro. It’ll be on Max later this fall.
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