There’s plenty to look forward to when The Penguin arrives on Max.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the creators and star Colin Farrell discussed what to expect in the new series.
What’s ahead on The Penguin
“It’s a Scarface story,” Lauren LeFranc, a lead writer and showrunner, said. “It’s a rise-to-power story of Oz before he really makes it to the top.”
The Penguin takes place a week after 2022’s The Batman, which stars Robert Pattinson. In the film, the Riddler blew up a seawall, flooding much of Gotham. The groundwork for the new series stems from the death of Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) and what comes next.
Farrell, who plays Oz (Oswald Cobblepot), aka Penguin, described how the backstory is the key ingredient.
He said, “I loved doing the part in the Batman film and the idea that we would get spoiled by having eight hours to really delve into this character’s psychology and backstory. Backstory plays a big part in the television show.”
The whole series is also a “bridge” between The Batman and the sequel that is set for 2026.
“We are the bridge between the two films,” LeFranc adds. “We’re going almost directly into the second film Matt (Reeves) has planned.”
Farrell added some context to work on the series with MovieZine last March. In it, he described a bit more of what’s to come.
“It was a long and really wonderful experience,” the actor said of working on The Penguin. “It’s dark, that’s what I can tell you about it. It’s really dark. It’s really heavy. I think, it certainly was doing it. Which is not to say I didn’t have fun, I had an amazing time doing it, but it’s incredibly violent.”
“It’s one man’s rise to what he’s always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status,” he continued. “The death of Carmine Falcone at the end of [The Batman] leaves this vacuum in Gotham to be filled, 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.”
Having backstories and spinoffs on The Batman with series like The Penguin sounds like a winning direction for DC. They offer a good segue to upcoming movies and expand the world into territory we haven’t seen before.
So, prepare for The Penguin when it debuts on Max in September.
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