Summary
It’s no secret that Batman probably has the greatest rogue’s gallery in comics. Many villains have risen from the page to steal scenes in films and series, and many more are waiting in the wings. As Joker returns to movie theaters in 2024, another prominent Batman villain is set to make a splash on HBO in a self-titled limited series. With no sign of the Dark Knight’s cape swooshing on screen this year, it feels like the bad guys have taken over the asylum.
That shouldn’t be so surprising.The Penguinis about to showcase Oswald Cobblepot in a dark and thrilling joyride through the Gotham City that executive producer Matt Reeves brought to the screen in 2022’sThe Batman. However, it’s not the first series to dive into that villain’s psyche. An increasing trend finds showrunners finding that the dark side of Gotham offers more potential than the Dark Knight.
The Versatile Caped Crusader
The success of Batman on the screen owes a lot to the character’s unique versatility. A long career has meant the tragic lone superhero, lacking in powers but stacked with cash, has succeeded as a brightly colored caped crusader and a shadowy urban legend. The most dangerous mortal on Earth can be found investigating a crime in the garbage-strewn alleys of Gotham City and facing off against Darkseid in the Fire Pits of Apokolips from one story to the next.
On film, Batman is often shown working alone, albeit with remote support from trusted butler Alfred. In comics, a status quo has established him as the head of an extended Bat-family. James Gunn will seek to bring that version of the Dark Knight to the DCU, starting withBatman: The Brave and the Bold.
Under it all, however, the fundamental myth of Batman’s origin story can’t change: the orphan on an endless mission to avenge his murdered parents. So, while Batman’s versatility has rubbed off on the villains he’s fought for decades, they have fewer ties when they undergo transformations of their own.
Many Gotham rogues have been adapted into colorful and darker versions on big and small screens. The Riddler’s journey from Frank Gorshin’s puzzling schemer in the 1960sBatmanseries to Jim Carrey’s hyperactive genius in Batman Forever and then Paul Dano’s serial killer is a case in point. A great indication of how important that flexibility is to every part of the Batman story is how Tom Hardy’s more realistic take on Bane in TheDark Knight Risesinspired the stand-out comedy Bane in theHarley Quinnanimated series.
Villains have helped take the Dark Knight to a combined global box office of $6.8 billion so far. Despite the MCU’s dominance in Hollywood, Batman remains the individual force to beat, although his days as a headliner supported by colorful villains are over. In recent years those rogues have shown they have a not-so-secret weapon to surpass him: they’re just more interesting.
The Penguin
Main Cast
Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Clancy Brown, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell
Writers
Lauren LeFranc, Erika L. Johnson, Noelle Valdivia, Noelle Valdivia, Breannah Gibson, Shaye Ogbonna, Nick Towne, Vladimir Cvetko
8
Where To Watch
Stream on HBO
HBO’sThe Penguinwill pick up where 2022’sThe Batmanleft off when it airs in September 2024. The HBO limited series will follow Colin Farrell’s villain as he wrestles control of Gotham in the weeks followingThe Batman. The series promises to reveal more about the breakout character.Speaking at SDCC 2024, Farrell detailed how his version sits in the character’s 58-year legacy, including a familiar-sounding recent series.
It’s only been a few years since the Penguin was a major character inGotham. The Fox series concentrated on the emergence of Gotham’s colorful villains in the aftermath of Bruce Wayne’s parents' shooting. A highlight was Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot, the low-level hoodlum with a plan who played the crime families of Gotham against each other in his quest for power.
In contrast to that ensemble piece,The Penguinwill hand Cobblepot the central role as it continuesThe Batman’sstylish and crime-heavy story and the villain’s great American hustle. Naturally, the roots of the story come from the comics. WhileThe Batmandrew onsome interesting comic book storylines, the links to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’sBatman: The Long Halloweenwere clear. Set during the Dark Knight’s early years, it examined the links between Gotham’s elite and the criminal underworld as a vicious serial killer evaded Batman for one bloody year.
InThe Batman, Reeves replaced the serial killer with Paul Dano’s fetching take on the Riddler, but it looks likeThe Penguinwill take even more direct inspiration from that story. The trailers reveal a Penguin ready to scale the rungs to the top of the city after Carmine Falcone’s death, only to encounterFalcone’s previously unseen son, Alberto, and daughter, Sofia. As in the sequel toThe Long Halloween,Dark Victory, Sofia is the serial killer dubbed Hangman, although she professes to be rehabilitated after incarceration in Arkham.
This “Next chapter in the Batman saga” doesn’t draw on rich comic history to enhance the Dark Knight, but one of his great foes. Colin Farrell is legendarily unrecognizable under the disfigured make-up of Michael Marino, but from under the latex, he draws out a classic interpretation of the character.
Farrell, who had fun early in his Hollywood career playing Marvel supervillain Bullseye opposite Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, obviously relishes the character, bulking up a lively script with a gloriously broad accent. But after Burgess Meredith’s umbrella-obsessed version from the 1960s, Danny DeVito’s feral take inBatman Returns,and Lord Taylor’s awkward grifter inGotham, Farrell’s interpretation has the chance to take the definite slot, especially as he’s just earned a return inThe Batman 2. The Dark Knight better watch out as the logo forThe Penguinshows that a villain’s name can easily replace “The Batman.”
Box office billions prove the popularity of seeing Batman overcome villains from the Joker to Talia al Ghul on the big screen, so moviegoers and studio execs might not want to hear it, but the tide is turning. Farrell’s interpretation of the Penguin is more proof that there are greater depths to mine on the darker side of Gotham City and more for comic book and movie fans to discover about characters they thought they knew. Pitch that rounded villain against other villains, without Batman’s legendary oath never to take a life, and the time may be near when one of Batman’s enemies surpasses their pointy-eared antagonist.
The Last Laugh
In fact, it could have already happened. Unsurprisingly, the Joker has proved to be the trailblazer of Gotham, helping Batman to his first blockbuster smash on the big screen in 1989’sBatman, and then pushing his box office over $1 billion with 2008’sThe Dark Knight. Although Catwoman beat the clown prince of crime to the cinema in a solo film (2004’s Halle Berry-starring flop), the Joker was just waiting for his moment.
Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, didn’t just score a hit away from Batman (despite including a young Bruce Wayne) when it shot over the billion-dollar mark. It did it with something big-screen Batman has never had: an R-rating. As the sequelJoker: Folie à Deuxreaches theaters this fall, HBO’sThe Penguinseries will be well underway. The Dark Knight’s enemies have never had a better chance to prove they’re more interesting than the Bat.
The Batman Part II
Cast
The Batman Part II is the sequel to Matt Reeve’s The Batman, released in 2022, and will continue where the original film left off. The film shares a universe with the HBO Max original Penguin series and sees the return of the Riddler and a different incarnation of the Joker.
