The Batman Director Compares Colin Farrell S Penguin Spinoff To Scarface

Colin Farrell will be starring as Oswald Cobblepot in a spinoff series derived from The Batman, fleshing out the backstory of the supervillain we will first meet in the new film in March. Not much has really been revealed about the spinoff other than that it follows Farrell as the iconic menace known to Gotham City as the Penguin. The Batman director Matt Reeves has now opened up a little more on what fans can expect from his planned “Batverse” in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Ideally, The Batman will be successful enough to warrant a sequel. Reeves says that while The Batman was designed to stand on its own, it was hard for him not to think about where to go next by the time they were wrapping things up. As the director explains:

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The Batman 2 is not officially in the work at this time, but a spinoff series about Colin Farrell as the Penguin is moving forward at HBO Max. Reeves shared some new details about the spinoff which will show Oswald Cobblepot’s rise in Gotham from a low-level thug into a criminal mastermind. The director compares the story to Scarface as if Oswald Cobblepot is basically the Tony Montana of this new “Batverse.”

Colin Farrell Is Excited to Delve Deeper Into the Penguin’s Story

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Colin Farrell has also said that Fredo from The Godfather inspired this incarnation of the character. At the time, before he’d signed on for the spinoff series, Farrell also noted his desire to explore more of Penguin in a potential sequel, as his screen time is limited in The Batman.

“[Matt Reeves] mentioned Fredo to me, because Fredo’s crippled by the insignificance that he lives within, in a family that is full of very strong, very bright, very capable, very violent men,” Farrell said, via Empire. “Which is why he commits the act of betrayal that he does, because he’s weak, he’s kind of broken, and he’s in pain. There is a kind of fracture at the core of Oz, which fuels his desire and his ambition to rise within this criminal cabal. Where that rise goes … I would love to get to explore that in the second film, if that was ever to happen.”

The Batman will be released in movie theaters on March 4, 2022. Its Penguin spinoff series does not yet have an official premiere date for HBO Max.