‘The Penguin’ will bridge the gap between ‘The Batman’ and sequel

Welcome to the “Batman Epic Crime Saga.” That’s what director Matt Reeves and his producing partner Dylan Clark internally dubbed their DC expansion plans.

The duo hopes to launch a universe of movies and shows that branch off from their 2022 Robert Pattinson-fronted Dark Knight film, and it begins with Colin Farrell’s return as Oz Cobblepot on the new series The Penguin (debuting in September on HBO and Max).

“It’s a Scarface story,” lead writer and showrunner Lauren LeFranc tells Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a rise-to-power story of Oz before he really makes it to the top.”

Set one week after Pattinson’s The Batman — which saw Paul Dano’s Riddler blow up the seawall to flood Gotham City — The Penguin centers on the intense power vacuum that formed from the death of mobster Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). “We’re in Oz’s world,” LeFranc says. “We’re living in the underbelly of the city. Oz is a mover and a shaker. He can’t always be trusted. He’s very smart and very methodical, but he’s also extremely impulsive. You can’t predict what he’s going to do.”

Reeves and Clark originally set out to chart a spinoff series focusing on the Gotham City Police Department with Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter on writing duty. They also experimented with an Arkham Asylum concept. “As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do,” Reeves recalls. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”

The execs at HBO offered their guidance. “They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters,'” Reeves notes. While those two early concepts did not move forward, elements of the Gotham P.D. treatment made their way into what is now The Penguin. “What’s interesting is that, in the movie, the big red herring of the story is it seems like the person they’re looking for, that the Riddler’s pointing to must be the Penguin, some kind of informant,” Reeves explains. “This movie creates a power vacuum, and because Penguin is so underestimated, people don’t really see who he is.”

He adds, “We wanted it to be, not in a grandiose way, but in a mythic Shakespearean way, this kind of great tale.”

Farrell was eager to dig into aspects of Oz we didn’t get to see in The Batman, from flashbacks to his childhood to his current relationship with his mentally disturbed mother (Deirdre O’Connell). “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,” the actor says. “Backstory plays a big part in the television show.”

That backstory also includes Carmine’s daughter Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), who returns to Gotham after a stint at Arkham Asylum. She adds a distinct touch of madness to the proceedings. “They’re two survivalists who’ve been immersed in worlds of duplicity and defeat and violence,” Farrell says of Oz and Sofia. “They’re very suspicious. They also have a very personally connected backstory.”

The obvious question is whether Pattinson’s Batman shows up. Not surprisingly, everyone we asked adhered to the rules of the criminal underworld: no snitches. For what it’s worth, the show mostly plays out in broad daylight, while the Bat only operates at night. But don’t count him out just yet.

“We are the bridge between the two films,” LeFranc reveals, referring to The Batman and Reeves’ sequel, slated for 2026. “We’re going almost directly into the second film Matt has planned.”

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Meanwhile, the Bat-spansion continues. “There’s another television exploration we’re going to do,” Clark says. “We’re looking at this entire world as it relates to who Batman is — the antagonists around them, all the crime that has to be navigated in the city — and trying to figure out where are the areas that are best to explore.”

The Penguin, now an HBO Original series, will premiere in September on both HBO and Max.