THE PENGUIN Producer Addresses Decision to Change Penguin's Name to "Oz Cobb"
The producer of the DC series The Penguin, Dylan Clark, addressed the decision to change Ozwald Cobblepot’s name to Oz Cobb in the series.
As you might imagine, some fans aren’t happy with the name change. But, the creative team was looking for something that was a bit more grounded in reality.
During an interview with SFX Magazine, Clark said: "They never got around to changing his name in the comics like they did with the Riddler, going from Edward Nigma to Edward Nashton, from an unreal name to a real name. By doing that they grounded the character."
He continued: "We had a lot of conversations with DC Comics and with Jim Lee [President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer]. They had thought about changing his name at some point but had never done it.
“Matt asked, 'Can I call our character Oz Cobb?' And Jim said, 'Absolutely!' So we got a blessing from the king himself. That small change of the name allowed us to look at this character in a grounded way."
Writer and showrunner Lauren LeFranc added, "Matt's created new canon in his film, and I'm creating new canon in this show. We have characters you're familiar with but there's a different spin on them.
"It felt like in the Gotham City that Matt created in his film, Cobblepott seemed less of a real person in the way that Cobb is a real last name. He's a gangster and it just kind of felt more correct."
Colin Farrell reprises his role as the Penguin, and he is making his moves to take control of the criminal enterprise the city.
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: “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. Which is not to say I didn’t have fun. I had an amazing time. But it’s incredibly violent.”
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 also 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).
The Penguin is set to premiere on September 19th.