Batman Spinoff 'The Penguin' Starring Colin Farrell Drops An Early Teaser That Gives Off The Intended 'Scarface' In Gotham Vibes

Matt Fitzgerald4/12/2023 7:00 PM

You could say The Penguin is mashing up two of the most legendary Al Pacino performances into one epic TV series. More on that soon. For the newly christened "MAX" streaming service, this spinoff of Matt Reeves' hit film the Batman follows Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobblepott (aka The Penguin) as he "ascends" the ranks of Gotham City's seedy underworld.

As we saw in the aftermath of The Batman, the entire city has been flooded and is in the process of rebuilding. Spoiler alert for a movie that came out a long while ago: There's a serious power vacuum in Gotham after the death of de facto mayor/criminal kingpin John Turturro's Carmine Falcone, who was gunned down by Paul Dano's Riddler. The events of The Penguin are likely to show Oz's rise to power, which will position him as the new top of the food chain before The Batman: Part II before its theatrical release on October 3, 2025.

Now back to the Pacino of it all. Farrell spoke about how The Godfather Part II's Fredo Corleone was a heavy inspiration for his character in The Batman. In that all-timer of a sequel, Fredo betrays his brother Michael, played by Pacino, and ends up dead by the end. In fact, we almost saw Oz meet a similar fate just before Falcone was murdered in cold blood by The Riddler.

So this is almost like if Fredo dodged his demise, Michael was offed, and he wound up taking on Pacino's Tony Montana persona from Scarface. Quite a cool mashup, combined with the iconography of The Penguin and the Batman franchise. It's all larger than life, and the way Farrell plays Penguin under world-class prosthetics lends to that scale. He makes big choices without being comically over-the-top, yet when he does push up against that line, there's genuine humor mixed with the sense that Oz still fits in the grounded Gotham Reeves constructed.

Check out to how Reeves described Scarface as a major influence on The Penguin, per an interview with Fandom:

"The idea of getting to do the series and really sort of dive into the depths of who this character is and look at that moment where it’s kind of his Scarface moment. The moment where everyone’s underestimated him, he’s gonna reach for power in Gotham. Lauren LeFranc, who wrote it and who’s the showrunner, she’s so wonderful. She dug into the character. I kept showing her the movie as she was working on the script, before the movie was ever done. So the idea of us getting to go back in and work with Colin is super exciting."

Wait WHAT!? DC actually had a clear creative vision and competent plan?? OK that's a bit of a cheap shot. Sorry. It's just...Warner Bros. has struggled for so long to put together a coherent story, be it false starts, announced projects that are scrapped, or compromising filmmakers' integrity. Reeves' The Batman and whatever else comes out of it are in their own, self-contained corner of the DC multiverse. Thank goodness for that.

As for the teaser itself, Farrell looks great and unrecognizable once again. You can see him becoming more self-assured, sensing the opportunity and seizing it. Even with all his sleazy antics, there was something I was rooting for underneath it all in his initial movie outing. Now, it looks like Oz will embrace his inner Penguin and stop at nothing to achieve ultimate power. Also: Cristin Milioti is perfect casting as Sofia Falcone. Can't wait to see how she factors into all this. AND she's the half sister of Selina Kyle/Catwoman! That's pretty dope.

Part of me felt like they'd eventually announce this series wasn't happening. I'm almost in denial about DC projects given the aforementioned issues. However, they must feel pretty good about what's coming in 2024 to release a teaser like this while still in the middle of production.

I'm ready for the rise of Oz and a proper showdown between him and Robert Pattinson's Batman down the line. Let's get it.