THE PENGUIN Creators Explain Why Batman Will Not Appear in the DC Series
There have been reports that Robert Pattinson’s Batman might show up in The Batman spinoff series The Penguin, but according to the creators of the show, that’s not the case, and they explain why they made that decision.
During an interview with SFX magazine, showrunner and writer Lauren LeFranc explained: “I understand why people’s desire would be to have Batman, or to think that unless Batman’s in a show or a film then it doesn’t have the same punch.
LeFranc continued: “To me I think it packs a different punch. Matt’s films are through the lens of the Batman, so you’re high up, looking down on the city. It’s a different perspective.
“With Oz, you’re in the city streets, you’re in the grit and the muck and the grime. He’s looking up, wanting to claw his way to the top.”
Reeves went on to say Batman not being featured in The Penguin doesn’t miss anything fundamental saying that the show is “an extension of what is fundamentally there. We know this is the world of Batman.”
He added: “You’re going down a different alley. So the spectre of Batman is there. The spectre of the Riddler is there. The spectre of everything that happens in the last movie is there. It informs it. And it’s exactly where we begin.”
The Penguin’s showrunner also noted that the series is “a different experience. I think Gotham is an interesting enough city that it deserves to have more doors unlocked within it, and for us to walk through those and see what we think.”
Yeah, I can buy all that. You don’t need Batman to make the story good or interesting, you just need a great story and script for The Penguin, and it looks like they managed to pull that off.
Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oswald Cobb who is making his moves to take control of the criminal enterprise of Gotham. The trailer offers an exciting look at what’s in store for this show, and it looks like it’s going to be a great crime series!
The eight-episode Penguin series has been described as a “Scarface-like” series that will see the rise of the villain in the criminal underworld of Gotham City. It was also confirmed that the series will lead directly into the events of The Batman: Part Two.
When previously talking about the movie Farrell said: "I think it's going to be eight parts for HBO around Oz's rise into power, filling that power vacuum that was created when Falcone was killed. Matt [Reeves]'s idea originally was to have the Penguin show begin about a week after the end of the Batman film.
“And then, if it works, if the trajectory is interesting enough and if the audience go for it and we do our jobs right, have the second film – Penguin feature in the second film and pick up where the HBO show will end."
He said in another interview: “It’s dark, that’s what I can tell you about it. It’s really dark, and really heavy, I think, certainly it was doing it.”
When talking about the story he said: "It's one man's rise to what he's always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status. And the death of Carmine Falcone at the end of the film leaves this vacuum in Gotham to be filled.
“And so there are various people that are grabbing for that power and this is Oswald's journey, trying to rise to the top, through extraordinary obstacles and it's super dark. Lauren LeFranc wrote a really twisted eight hours of television."
The series stars Cristin Milioti, who plays female lead Sofia Falcone, and Rhenzy Feliz, who is playing a teen whom The Penguin befriends and makes his driver. The rest of the cast includes Michael Kelly (House of Cards, Jack Ryan), Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse, House Of Sand And Fog) and Deirdre O’Connell (Outer Range) have joined the DC series.
The series is set to premiere in September 19th.