HBO’s “The Batman” spin-off, “The Penguin,” aired last night on the cable channel and on MAX, and as fans can tell, it’s not so much a superhero series, shaped much more like a crime show not unlike “The Sopranos,” only set in Gotham City. The series is dark, gritty, humorous and delves into the personal story of what made Oz Cobb, aka The Penguin (Colin Farrell, barely recognizable under prosthetics), the ambitious criminal underworld boss he becomes in the comics (read our review)
Of course, all the principals involved, creator Lauren LeFranc, Farrell, and executive producer Matt Reeves, are doing press for the series. Reeves, in particular, has revealed a few details about the upcoming “The Batman Part II” sequel.
It’s been several years between ‘Batman’ films, Reeves first movie came out in 2022 and it’ll be four years until ‘Part II’ which is set to arrive October 2026. Still, Reeves says the script is finished, which often takes him a while to complete, and production will begin next year.
Reeves wouldn’t reveal much more but teased that “there’s a period of time” that ‘Part II’ will jump to after the first film and TV series. “Oz does become one of the entry points into the movie,” he told Entertainment Weekly this week. “I can’t tell you where it goes from there except to say that we’re super excited about it.”
At least there’s confirmation that Farrell will return for the second film and his third time playing The Penguin role.
While Robert Pattinson’s The Batman and Bruce Wayne does not appear in “The Penguin” series, Reeves says he wasn’t opposed to the character potentially turning up in a future series.
“That’s not to say that there would never be an appearance by Batman or Bruce or something like that [on a future series],” Reeves said. “Lauren and I did speak: Do we want to find a way to get Rob to somehow be in this show? But that was an afterthought.”
One question hanging over “The Batman Part II” is whether Academy Award-winning cinematographer Grieg Fraser will return. He was instrumental in the look and feel of the original film, but in an interview with Collider, Reeves said he was unsure if the director of photography would be available.
Asked whether or not Fraser would return, Reeves said, “I don’t know yet. I certainly hope that the timing will work out for that, but I actually don’t know,” he admitted. “We’re not to the place where we know that yet. I hope that’s the case because I just love working with him. I think he’s the best. Actually, he was a little bit involved in the series, too, because I said I wanted to make sure the DNA was the same as we went off and found our own visual voice.”
As of right now, Reeves has hinted there’s at least one more ‘Batman’ spin-off series in the works at HBO, but so far, two series, a Gotham PD series and an Arkham Asylum show, have not moved forward. In the EW interview, Reeves said HBO wanted “marquee characters” like The Penguin, so there’s definitely the possibility that if another show does move forward, it could revolve around another villain.
To cap it all off, “The Penguin” official podcast is out. The episode contains a great interview with Reeves, LeFranc, Colin Farrell, and more. It’s definitely worth a listen, so check that out below.
