HBO and BINGE have released a teaser for the upcoming Batman spin-off The Penguin, starring Academy Award-nominated actor Colin Farrell. The eight-episode limited series explores the seedy nature of Farrell’s contentious underworld figure Oswald Cobblepot, which fans last saw in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Importantly, no official release date has been confirmed but HBO has acknowledged that the upcoming spin-off will premiere in September 2024.
The Penguin Release Update
Despite our disappointment at the release date for Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II being pushed back a year, there’s comfort in knowing that we won’t actually have to wait until that film’s October 2, 2026 launch for our next trip to the rain-soaked, crime-ridden streets of Gotham City. While there is no official release date for The Penguin, HBO and BINGE have confirmed that the series will premiere on both platforms in September 2024, which is good news for fans.
Robert Pattinson’s take on the Dark Knight may have been the title character of Reeves’ film, we all know Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot (aka the Penguin) was the real star of the show. Batman writer-director Matt Reeves executive produces the series via his production company, 6th & Idaho, while Lauren LeFranc acts as executive producer and showrunner. Farrell, who also stars, is the executive producer for the series along with Dylan Clark, Daniel Pipski, and Bill Carraro. Executive producer Craig Zobel directs the first three episodes.
According to MAX, filming for The Penguin began in March 2023 in New York but was suspended in June due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. The series resumed production in late November and wrapped in February 2024.
Speaking with TechRadar in March 2022 ahead of The Batman‘s launch, Farrell explained that the production was extensive, with the story to be told over “six to eight hours” of screen time. “I only have six or seven scenes in the film, so Oswald is still kind of an unknown certainty to me as well,” Farrell said. “I’ve become very excited by the prospect of getting to learn what the parameters are, if indeed there are any for the character.”
“He’s got a lovely kind of sense of humour. He’s kind of funny, but he’s kind of not, but he thinks he is. He’s definitely dangerous and has a kind of a certain psychopath to him. But he’s also a little bit broken inside, as many of us are, so it’ll be fun to explore all those aspects.”
The Penguin Trailer
To coincide with the release update, HBO unveiled a second trailer for The Penguin, providing the best look yet at the new mini-series, which will see Farrell return to his highly celebrated take on the famed Batman villain when it debuts in the latter half of this year.
Judging by the trailer, the series seems to take a page out of the widely beloved hit The Sopranos; however, things are far more chaotic here. The upcoming series will take place a week after the events of The Batman, with the first teaser showing us a ravaged Gotham City that’s still flooded with water. We hear Penguin’s voice-over saying, “This is one of those moments where you gotta ask yourself, what kind of life do I want?” Penguin’s voice-over continues, “The world isn’t built for guys like us; that’s why we have to take what’s ours.”
It carries over the grim tone and aesthetic from the 2022 reboot of the Caped Crusader’s universe, with the trailer hinting at a continuation of the incredible lighting and camera work that made The Batman such an impressive visual feat. That darkness appears to run through the deeds of the new series’ characters as well, with flashes of violence interspersed with Cobblepot telling a story about the local gangster in the neighbourhood where he grew up.
The Penguin Confirmed Cast
Joining Farrell for this gritty journey through Gotham’s underbelly is an impressive cast, including Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs, The Wolf of Wall Street, Fargo) as Sofia Falcone, whose mobster father died at the hands of the Riddler in The Batman; Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers) as competing gangster Salvatore Maroni; and maybe even Robert Pattinson himself, if the cameo rumours are anything to go by.
- Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone
- Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar
- Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti
- Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni
- Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb
- Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni
- James Madio as Milos Grapa
- Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone
- Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone
- Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo
- Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush
What We Think The Penguin Will Be About
As evidenced by the first teasers, the eight-episode DC Studios drama TV series will see Colin Farrell reprising his role as the Gotham City mobster and centre around Cobblepot’s accession to power in Gotham while the city is still reeling from the somewhat apocalyptic events of Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
With Carmine Falcone now out of the picture, Gotham’s underworld is going all haywire which gives Penguin the perfect opportunity to make the most of the power struggle between all the mobsters. The teaser shows us Farrell’s Cobblepot as he does some shady back-alley dealings and shoots down a bunch of guys like Terminator. We even see the character’s iconic limping when he climbs the subway stairs. Penguin also lays down the rules of his business to a young boy, saying, “You step out of line even once, I’ll gut you like a goddamn fish.”
A recent MovieZine interview with Farrell backs this up, with the actor revealing that the series might go even further than the movie that spawned it: “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. 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.”
Where to Watch The Penguin
With The Penguin landing on the USA’s Max streaming service in the fall—Aussies will get to watch it on BINGE in our corresponding spring—we can’t wait to see what Farrell and co have in store.
