Full spoilers follow for The Batman.
The official trailer for The Penguin has been revealed – and it looks like The Batman's first TV spin-off is going all out to deliver a comic book-inspired version of The Sopranos.
The highly anticipated Max TV show's latest footage, which you can view below, teases more of the civil war that'll erupt in Gotham City's criminal underworld following – spoiler – the death of Carmine Falcone in the first Robert Pattinson-starring Batman film. Indeed, the emerging turf war will see Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, going up against Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), Carmine Falcone's daughter and heir to her father's criminal empire.
The crime thriller show's latest teaser isn't the only thing that was announced by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Revealed in a press release and in the show's first poster on X/Twitter, The Penguin is set to debut on Max, aka one of the world's best streaming services, this September. The confirmed release window comes just one week after HBO boss Casey Bloys all-but-confirmed The Penguin would be released on WBD's streaming platform in September.
Unfortunately, there's no news on when The Penguin will be available to stream in the UK or Australia. Previously, it was confirmed that the Farrell-starring show will air on Sky and Now TV on British shores later this year, but an official release date hasn't been announced. A streamer and launch date haven't been unveiled for Australia, either. I've reached out to my contacts for confirmation on when and where The Penguin will be available in these countries, and I'll update this article if I hear back.
Will Batman be in The Penguin TV series?
The city will be his. Academy Award nominee Colin Farrell is #ThePenguin in the new Max Original Series coming this September to Max. pic.twitter.com/AYAS5ULQr2June 20, 2024
Nobody knows. WBD is keeping schtum on The Penguin's plot – indeed, outside of what's shown off in the program's latest footage, the only official information we have is that it'll comprise eight episodes and that it "continues filmmaker Matt Reeves' The Batman epic crime saga that began with Warner Bros. Pictures’ global blockbuster The Batman".
Speaking to TechRadar in March 2022 ahead of The Batman's launch, however, Farrell told TechRadar that its story will be told over "six to eight hours" of screen time. Teasing what we can expect from Cobblepot as a character, he added: "I only have six or seven scenes in the film, so Oswald is still kind of an unknown certainty to me as well. I've become very excited by the prospect of getting to learn what the parameters are, if indeed there are any for the character.
"He's got a lovely kind of sense of humour. He's kind of funny, but he's kind of not, but he thinks he is. He's definitely dangerous and has a kind of a certain psychopath to him. But he's also a little bit broken inside, as many of us are, so it'll be fun to explore all those aspects."
To learn about what we might see in The Penguin from a storytelling perspective, you'll want me to read my article that explains The Batman's ending. Outside of that, though, we'll have to wait for the show to land – or, at the very least, hear more from the series' cast and crew – before we find out anymore plot details.
Speaking of who else is involved: Lauren LeFranc (Agents of SHIELD) acts as The Penguin's showrunner, while Reeves is among its large executive producing team. Farrell and Milioti are joined on the cast roster by plenty of familiar names and newcomers, too: Rhenzy Feliz (who plays Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush) will also feature.
The Penguin will make a bullet-filled splash on Max (in the US) in September.
