Not too much is known about the upcoming The Penguin series starring Colin Farrell, but in a recent interview, the actor opened up about how his appearance in The Batman was just the beginning for the character.
During a recent appearance at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Farrell spoke with Variety and revealed how the series ended up coming together. According to Farrell, he had no idea the character would be getting a series when he joined Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but that he wanted to explore more immediately.
“The only thing I had an idea was that I wasn’t nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to,” Farrell said. “Because there was all this extraordinary work done by [makeup artists] Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine and his team, and I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more.”
Farrell went on to say that he then spoke with producer Dylan Clark about the possibility of exploring the character more, but what really made him want to do was how he looked as Oswald Cobblepot.
“Honest to god, any thought I had about an extended series was to do with [makeup artist] Mike Marino’s work. I just knew there was so much to do with it — age it up, age it down,” said Farrell. “He’s just such a genius, Mike, so it was his work that was the inspiration, really.”
“Penguin will sit immediately after the end of The Batman and temporally before the events of the second movie. The show will come out in between the two movies. Now beyond that, it’s fun for the audience to know that it will be a bridge between the two, but the actual release date, I’m not at liberty to say,” HBO Max Head of Originals Sarah Aubrey recently revealed.
The limited drama will be based on the DC characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. It is being written by Lauren LeFranc, who is also set as the showrunner. The first two episodes will be directed by Craig Zobel.
The upcoming The Penguin series will be executive produced by The Batman‘s Dylan Clark and Matt Reeves, Farrell, LeFranc, Daniel Pipski, Adam Kassan, and Rafi Crohn. It is a joint project between 6th and Idaho, DC Entertainment, Dylan Clark Productions, and Warner Bros. Television.