Colin Farrell stars as Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot in the new HBO series, The penguin.
The merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery effectively ended an era of the DC Extended Universe, while leaving the fate of several planned projects in limbo, the most significant of which was a sequel to the 2022 film The Batsman and an accompanying spin-off series, The penguin. Both projects survived the merger and DC Studio has released the first full trailer for The penguin-starring Colin Farrell who is The Batsman role of Oswald Cobblepot—during the panel at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend.
The panel also included a first look and screening of the first episode of Prime Video's new animated series Batman: Masked Crusaderstarring Minnie Driver as the voice of a gender-flipped version of the Penguin named Oswalda Cobblepot. The official trailer dropped last month.
(Spoilers for 2022's The Batsman (below.)
Farrell's Cobblepot/Penguin was the chief lieutenant of crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) in The Batsmana mid-level mafioso who ran the Iceberg Lounge. (Director Matt Reeves once compared him to Fredo Corleone in the 1972 film The godfather.) The film's climax unmasked forensic accountant Edward Nashton (Paul Dano) as the serial killer Riddler, who killed Falcone with a sniper rifle in his final act of murder. He also planted bombs all over Gotham City, destroying the city's seawall and causing massive flooding.
The penguin picks up a week after that flood. Falcone's death has left a power vacuum in Gotham City, and Cobblepot is determined to take over the criminal underworld, but he's got some stiff competition. Based on the teaser, it's essentially a supervillain version of The Sopranos and indeed, Farrell seems to be imitating Tony Soprano in many of his scenes.
In addition to Farrell, the cast includes Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Carmine's daughter who is also a psychopathic serial killer known as Hangman. Recently released from Arkham Asylum, she is Cobblepot's chief rival for control of Gotham's criminal underworld. Rhenzy Feliz plays Cobblepot's teenage chauffeur, Victor Aguilar; Michael Kelly plays Falcone's underboss Johnny Vitti; Deirdre O'Connell plays Cobblepot's mentally disturbed mother; Clancy Brown plays mob boss/drug dealer Salvatore Maroni; Shohreh Aghdashloo plays Nadia Maroni; Michael Zegen plays Sofia's younger brother Alberto Falcone; Scott Cohen plays Luca Falcone; James Madio plays Milos Grapa; Theo Rossi plays a doctor named Julian Rush; and Carmen Ejogo plays Eve Karlo.
The penguin will premiere on HBO on September 19, 2024. Batman: Masked Crusader debuts on Prime Video on August 1, 2024.
Clip from Prime Video's upcoming HBO animated series, Batman: Masked Crusader.
Image of the list by YouTube/MAX
