Colin Farrell's Batman Villain Starts A Gotham Mob War In The Penguin Trailer
If you're still feeling down in the dumps over "The Batman Part II" being delayed a full year while Warner Bros. figures this DC s**t out, I come bearing good news. "The Penguin," a spin-off series centered on Colin Farrell's crime boss Oswald "Oz" Cobb, aka The Penguin, is coming later this year and it looks to serve as a quasi-sequel to Matt Reeves' Fincher-esque, noirish take on the Caped Crusader. This will also mark the second time the titular Batman villain's rise to power in Gotham City's criminal underworld has been covered on the small screen after "Gotham," a deliriously ridiculous show in which, at one point, one of the series' heroes uncovers a corpse in a refrigerator and immediately pops the cap off a nice cool beverage on the top shelf, reasoning, "If I don't drink it, forensics will."
"The Penguin," by comparison, clearly strikes a tone much closer to "The Batman," with Farrell's mobster aspiring to fill the power vacuum left in the wake of the Dark Knight's battle with Edward Nashton, aka The Riddler, and his followers (which left the Falcone crime family in shambles and much of Gotham City submerged in seawater). For more on that, take a gander at the new trailer seen above.
The Penguin struts his stuff this September
Holy god, what are you showing me here? Come on! Oz ain't messing around, folks, and neither is "The Penguin," which pits its namesake against Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), the daughter of the late Carmine and Oswald's chief rival for control of Gotham's law-breaking elements. Milioti was an absolute delight in the time loop comedy "Palm Springs" and has shown a real knack for darker humor with her turns in the "Black Mirror" episode "USS Callister" and, more recently, the streaming series "Made for Love" and "The Resort." As much as filmgoers came away from "The Batman" quoting Farrell's colorful low-rung crook, Milioti's crime queen may just prove to be this show's secret weapon, by the look of things.
Among those joining Farrell and Milioti in the cast here are Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni and Michael Zegen as Sofia's brother Alberto, with Lauren LeFranc serving as showrunner and Reeves executive producing alongside "The Leftovers" and "Mare of Easttown" alum Craig Zobel (who's also directing a handful of episodes). "The Penguin" will begin streaming on Max at some point in September 2024 after filming was postponed by last year's (extremely necessary) WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.