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- The Penguin is an upcoming HBO Max series set after the events of the 2022 movie The Batman.
- Colin Farrell is reprising his role as the Penguin.
- The Penguin started filming in March 2023.
You haven’t seen the last of the Penguin in Gotham City. Colin Farrell is reprising his role as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot for the upcoming HBO Max miniseries that is a spinoff to 2022’s The Batman starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader. The Penguin has already begun filming, and Colin, 46, looks unrecognizable in the photos taken on the set. Since The Batman was a massive hit for DC fans, there’s a lot of anticipation for the standalone show about one of Bruce Wayne’s most iconic villains.
In The Batman, the Penguin is introduced as the right-hand man to Gotham crime lord Carmine Falcone (John Torturro). The HBO Max series is expected to take place after the film and cover Penguin’s rise to power in Gotham. Here’s everything we know so far about The Penguin, including the release date, the cast, and more.
The Penguin Release Date
HBO has not announced the release date for The Penguin. Filming began on March 1, 2023, in New York City, and is expected to last until the summer. So, that means we can probably expect the show to debut sometime in 2024. It’ll definitely come out before The Batman — Part II, the sequel to Matt Reeves‘s movie, which has a theatrical release date set for October 3, 2025.
The Penguin Cast
Of course, Colin Farrell is returning as the titular villain in The Penguin. The actor underwent a major transformation for the role in The Batman, donning a fat suit and prosthetics. He’s doing the same for the HBO Max show, with the help of makeup artists Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine who he praised in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife. “I just sit in the chair and let Mike Marino work his genius,” Colin said of “becoming” the Penguin at the National Board of Review Awards in NYC in January. “That was it!” he added.
Colin will star opposite Cristin Milioti, who is playing Sofia Falcone, Carmine Falcone’s daughter. According to Deadline, Sofia “is fighting with The Penguin for control” of Gotham in the show. Sofia was previously portrayed by Crystal Reed in the Gotham TV series.
Clancy Brown will play Salvatore Maroni, a Gotham City mob boss. Salvatore is an enemy of Batman’s. The character was played by Dennis Paladino in Batman Forever, Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight, and David Zayas in Gotham. Rounding out The Penguin cast is Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Deidre O’Connell, who have all been cast in undisclosed roles.
The Penguin Plot Details
The Penguin is obviously going to be all about Oswald Cobblepot, but beyond that, very little details about the show have been released. Colin previously confirmed that the show is going to take place about one week after the events of The Batman, which ended with Riddler (Paul Dano) flooding Gotham City.
“It starts about a week after ‘The Batman’ ends,” Colin told Extra. “So, Gotham is still, somewhat, underwater. I read the first script of the first episode and it opens up on my feet splashing through the water in Falcone’s office. Even that alone, when I read it, I was like, ‘Oh, Jesus!’ ” Colin also said about the show, “It’s lovely. It’s so well-written. Lauren LeFranc has done such an extraordinary job, and she’s writing the whole thing and show-running. She is formidable. It’s just an exciting prospect. I love that character. I was greedy with it. I felt like I didn’t have enough. I wanted to do it more and more and more.”
In an interview with Collider, Colin said the script for the first episode was “so tasty and so unusual.” Colin also revealed that The Penguin is going to be around “six or eight hours” long. HollywoodLife will continue to share updates on The Penguin right here!
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