Colin Farrell will reprise the villainous role he originated in 2022’s The Batman in the new HBO series The Penguin.
However, fans of the DC Comics film directed by Matt Reeves should not expect Robert Pattinson to appear in the Dark Knight costume.
“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,” showrunner and writer Lauren LeFranc told SFX magazine.
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.”
The Penguin’s showrunner noted that the series is “a different experience,” adding, “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.”
Reeves says that Batman not being featured in The Penguin doesn’t miss anything fundamental saying that the spinoff series is “an extension of what is fundamentally there. We know this is the world of Batman.”
“You’re going down a different alley. So the spectre of Batman is there,” Reeves added. “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.”