His name is not Oswald! It’s Penguin! But there’s another Penguin floating about Gotham other than just Danny DeVito – and despite previous statements pointing to the contrary, DeVito is giving Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb his approval.
While Colin Farrell made an immediate mark as the Penguin in 2022’s The Batman, his namesake HBO show has shown just how much he has transformed the character, playing him like a harp from hell. And DeVito can’t help but give credit where it’s due, saying of Farrell’s Penguin, “Oh, Colin’s giving me a run for my money. And it’s totally different. I’ve been watching it. I haven’t watched the whole thing, but I watched most of what was out…and you know, it’s really good.” Obviously the show was all DeVito needed to turn the other beak, as he said after The Batman’s release that his own Penguin was superior to Farrell’s.
Still, Danny DeVito notices just how different the two takes on Penguin are, adding, “But I think we both really do a substantially good job with Oswald from different angles. You know, mine had no Italian overtones of mafia or guns in that way. I was just the, you know, egomaniac trying to take over the city. I was, you know, a misunderstood bird, a bird who cannot fly. So mine is a totally different character than in The Penguin with Colin, which is good. It’s good. Here you got a gangster penguin. It’s fine, and he’s doing a great job.” He, too, praised the makeup as entirely transforming Farrell into the Penguin, something that didn’t entirely happen with him on Batman Returns (although it didn’t need to, either, since one of the draws was seeing DeVito as the character).
It’s been more than three decades since Danny DeVito last played Penguin (aka Oswald Cobblepot), but he might still have a hankering for the character, expressing an interest in reprising him if Tim Burton were to direct another movie. Since we know there’s zero chance of that happening, we’ll stick with Colin Farrell, who wants to return for a second season of The Penguin.
Let’s settle this: which version of Penguin do you think is the best? Put one on the pedestal by commenting below.