The Batman Spinoff Series Back On Track After Strike?
Colin Farrell’s Penguin from Matt Reeves The Batman film was an intriguing enough character to get his own Max spin-off, and now the series is back on track to return to production. The series initially began production in March but experienced interruptions in June from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. It is now set to resume shooting after the recent end of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Colin Farrell is reprising his role as Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot in the series, which picks up immediately after the events of The Batman. His character was lower on the criminal underworld totem pole in the film, but the series will chronicle his rise to power in Gotham and pose him as a much bigger threat for Robert Pattinson’s Bat in the future. Ferrell’s portrayal was just one of the many critically acclaimed aspects of the DC film.
Along with Colin Farrell, The Penguin also stars Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, Carmen Ejogo, Francois Chau, Theo Rossi, and David H. Holmes. The series will include eight episodes, with Lauren LeFranc serving as writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Matt Reeves, who directed The Batman, will executive produce through 6th & Idaho along with Dylan Clark of Dylan Clark Productions.
Colin Ferrell will also serve as executive producer and star in The Penguin. The series will be part of the recently dubbed DC Elseworlds banner. This includes films, TV shows, and other projects outside the main DCU continuity that James Gunn and Peter Safran are building. This allows Matt Reeves to continue to build his Batverse without being tied to the events of the larger DCU.
DC fans and fans of superhero films in general enjoyed The Batman more than many recent DC projects, especially compared to projects that are part of the now-defunct DCEU. The performances by Robert Pattinson as Batman, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Ferrell as Penguin, and Paul Dano as Riddler, combined with Matt Reeves’ moody direction, were the shot in the arm DC needed. Hopefully, this can continue with the sequel to The Batman and this Ferrell-starring Max series.
Regardless, DC’s prospects are looking up as the remnants of the DCEU gradually fade into the background and hype builds for James Gunn’s first DCU project, Superman: Legacy, which is set for a 2025 release. Gunn and Safran laid out an ambitious slate of films and TV shows that will be released in the coming years, and that will hopefully improve the quality and storytelling of DC projects. The fact that DC also has the DC Elseworlds banner that lets creators like Matt Reeves off the continuity leash to create their own universes is also promising and gives DC a little more flexibility on the projects it releases.
In any case, it’s good to see that Colin Ferrell’s The Penguin is back on track. As of now, there’s no official release date for the project, but it’s set for a 2024 release. Stay tuned for more news on this and other DC projects.
