Due to arrive this year, The Penguin, Warner’s TV spin-off from The Batman, is “incredibly violent” and “twisted” says title star Colin Farrell.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows, so it follows that its upcoming spin-off series, simply called The Penguin, will be similarly dark.
In fact, if we’re interpreting recent quotes from title star Colin Farrell correctly, the series could be even more withering and nightmarish than the movie. Talking to MovieZine (via Deadline), Farrell said that filming had wrapped on the series a couple of weeks ago, and that “It’s dark… really dark.”
It’s really heavy, I think, it certainly was doing it,” he said. “Which is not to say I didn’t have fun, I had an amazing time doing it, but it’s incredibly violent.”
Continuing the threads established by Reeves’ 2022 Caped Crusader film, The Penguin follows gangster Oswald Cobblepot’s rise to power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld. “The death of Carmine Falcone at the end of [The Batman] leaves this vacuum in Gotham to be filled,” Farrell said, “and so there are various people that are grabbing for that power. This is Oswald’s journey trying to rise to the top through extraordinary obstacles, and it’s super dark.”
Comprising eight episodes, The Penguin’s non-Farrell cast includes Cristin Milioti as Carmine Falcone’s daughter, Sofia, Michael Zegen will play Alberto, her brother, and Clancy Brown as mob boss Salvatore Maroni.
The Penguin was one of several films and TV productions hit by the Hollywood strikes last year, with filming delayed by about eight months; filming then resumed in November 2023, with the finished show set to air on HBO’s Max platform in autumn 2024.
Given the starry presence of Farrell, the huge amount of prosthetic makeup effects his role requires, and the impressive production values shown off in the first teaser trailer, it looks as though a lot of money’s been spent on The Penguin. Here’s hoping it’s as engaging as the early promos suggest.
More on this as we get it.
