Colin Farrell’s gangster Oz Cobb (better known as the Penguin) was one of the breakout characters of director Matt Reeves’ 2022 hit “The Batman.” Now the Penguin’s long-awaited solo miniseries, which was initially announced two years ago, finally debuts its first trailer, ahead of the series premiere set for this fall on Max.
Farrell disappeared into the role of the Penguin in “The Batman,” but the focus was clearly on Robert Pattinson’s title character, and the Penguin was only one of several villains and other familiar figures from the Batman mythos. In “The Batman,” the Penguin worked for crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), mainly running Falcone’s club the Iceberg Lounge, where he worked with Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), aka Catwoman. The Penguin has one particularly memorable car chase scene in “The Batman,” but otherwise the spotlight remains on other characters.
That didn’t prevent Farrell from giving a memorable performance, completely immersing himself in a role that renders him unrecognizable under various prosthetics, with an affected tough-guy Gotham City accent (which sounds a bit like a mix of Chicago and New York). Now he gets to take center stage in “The Penguin,” which takes place one week after the events of “The Batman” and looks like it will feature the Penguin’s rise to power, now that Falcone has been eliminated.
In the new trailer, the Penguin delivers a monologue to an unseen recipient, telling the story of a neighborhood gangster from his youth, who was celebrated as a hero and even received a parade in his honor after he died. It sounds a bit like Ray Liotta’s opening narration in “GoodFellas,” and it wouldn’t be out of place to hear the Penguin say that as far back as he can remember, he always wanted to be a gangster.
The Penguin’s monologue is intercut with scenes of violence, including a memorable image of co-star Cristin Milioti, as Falcone’s daughter Sofia, screaming in anguish. Other series regulars include Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown and Michael Zegen.
“The Penguin” is being billed as “the next chapter in the Batman saga,” which means that the series is likely to set up other characters and storylines for future Batman content, including the movie “The Batman – Part II,” currently set to be released in theaters on Oct. 2, 2026. That’s a long time to wait, but “The Penguin” should give Batman fans plenty to enjoy and speculate about until then.
