We will soon be thrust back into the Gotham City underworld with The Penguin, the upcoming HBO series starring Colin Farrell as the titular mobster. However, the big question has been will Batman make an appearance in the series? According to Matt Reeves, who executive produces the series, neither Batman nor Bruce Wayne will appear in The Penguin, but they did consider it.
“I’m a point-of-view filmmaker,” Reeves told Total Film. “When I’m doing a Batman story, Batman and Bruce is going to be the main point of view. To explore the rogues gallery, they could never get the real estate we can do in a series. So Batman is in this [show] only as a sense that he’s a presence. You’re aware that all of these events began because of the Riddler, but the Riddler doesn’t appear and Batman doesn’t appear.“
Just in case anyone was still in doubt, Reeves doubled down. “Rob [Pattinson] is not going to be in the show,” Reeves said. “I’d rather take the Band-Aid off now. We did talk about all that but we felt the best way to do this was to go on a grand exploration of a guy grabbing for power in this moment.“
Taking place after the events of The Batman, The Penguin will find Oswald Cobblepot taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the death of Carmine Falcone. In addition to Farrell, the series stars Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, daughter of the late Carmine, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Oswald’s driver, Michael Kelly as Johnny Vity, Falcone family underboss, and Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, a rival gangster. Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Michael Zegen, Carmen Ejogo, and Theo Rossi also star in the series.
The Penguin was originally developed by Max, but it has since moved to HBO alongside several other shows that were initially announced for Max. The series will debut on HBO on September 19th. As for The Batman Part II, we’ve got quite a wait in store as the film has been delayed by an entire year and will now hit theaters on October 2, 2026.