Colin Farrell is returning to the makeup chair to transform himself into Oswald Cobblepot for Max‘s The Penguin series. After months of being grounded because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, production for The Penguin is taking flight the week after Thanksgiving. The series, a spin-off of Matt Reeves’ The Batman film, started filming in March but stalled because of the writers’ strike in June.
In addition to revealing the production restart date for The Penguin, Empire recently dropped a new image from the series:
The eight-episode drama continues Penguin’s rise as one of Gotham’s most notorious criminals, from the chilling dancefloors of the Iceberg Lounge to the darkest corners of Gotham City’s underworld. Cristin Milioti plays Sofia Falcone, a prolific crime boss who succeeded in taking Oswald’s empire apart piece by piece. Clancy Brown plays Salvatore Maroni, a powerful mob boss in Gotham City who disfigured Harvey Dent, prompting his transformation into Two-Face. The character has appeared several times in various Batman-related projects, most notably by Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight and David Zayas in Gotham. Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Carmen Ejogo, François Chau, Theo Rossi, and David H. Holmes also star.
HBO Max’s Sarah Aubrey has previously said that the series events will pick up immediately after the end of The Batman as it shows Cobblepot’s. “The goal of this is to show what Oz’s life is like, and that’s very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can,” Aubrey said. “As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It is a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It’s very much going to be about Gotham at that street level because he’s not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have.”
Speaking with Extra TV last year, Farrell shared the opening moments of the first episode of DC’s The Penguin series, saying, “The Batman ends, so Gotham is still somewhat underwater… I read the first script for the first episode, and just, it opens up with my feet splashing through the water in Falcone’s office, which even just that alone when I read it, I was like, ‘Oh Jesus, it’s lovely.'” Farrell adds that the role is so juicy he feels greedy for wanting to keep portraying him. “I felt like I didn’t have enough. I wanted to do it more and more and more, so now I get the chance.”
The Batman mastermind Matt Reeves will executive produce The Penguin series alongside Dylan Clark, Farrell, Craig Zobel, and Lauren LeFranc, who also acts as showrunner. Zobel is also getting behind the camera to direct the first two episodes.
Are you excited to hear The Penguin is going back into production? How long do you think it will be until we see The Batman: Part Two? Let us know in the comments below.