The Penguin Director Explains That Riddler Reference In Episode 1, And How It Ties Back To The Batman

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We have a long time to wait until Matt Reeves takes us back to his interpretation of Gotham, as the anticipated The Batman: Part 2 now has an October 2026 release date. Thankfully, while the writer-director refines his vision, the HBO original series The Penguin will rekindle our interest in the Reeves-verse, following the character of Oswald Cobb (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) as he maneuvers the power vacuum created by the assassination of crime boss Carmine Falcone (played by Mark Strong in the series).

The first episode of The Penguin recently premiered on HBO, taking audiences back to Gotham in the aftermath of the devastating flood caused by The Riddler (Paul Dano) and his followers. As you saw in the opening moments of The Penguin, newscasters confirmed that the wealthy areas of Gotham were unscathed by the devastation, but neighborhoods such as Crown Point were decimated… including Oz Cobb’s nightclub, The Iceberg Lounge. There was a moment in the episode, though, where Oz and his new protege, Victor, were riding the subways, and they get approached by hooded figures handing out pamphlets with question marks on them.

Craig Zobel (Compliance, The Hunt) directed the first three episodes of The Penguin, which received raves. In preparation for the release of The Penguin, he spoke exclusively with CinemaBlend about his work on the show, and when I asked him about those guys, and the information they were sharing (which Oz refused to take), Zobel explained to me:

The idea was that at the end of The Batman, we've seen that The Riddler is not just… there is a bit of a kind of a movement. This online, almost incel kind of movement of people. This is, I felt, a useful reminder that something as disastrous as that doesn't happen without there being people still believing in it. That also, to kind of remind everybody that – I mean, frankly, it was a success, right? I mean, Batman stopped things from happening in the Madison Square Garden-esque space. But they got away with blowing up a (chunk) of Gotham. We just wanted to keep that alive. There's people out there that are still believing in (The Riddler), that still think that they won. They did what they wanted, in a weird way.

There are numerous plot threads that get distributed around this debut episode of The Penguin, introducing such important characters as Sofia Falcone (recently released from Arkham Asylum), Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), and Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell), Oz’s mother. There’s more than enough material to carry us through this season – as you will see – but it’s a thrill every time that The Penguin makes a reference to the work that Batman (Robert Pattinson) is doing behind the scenes in Gotham… even if he doesn’t ever appear on screen.

We will have more from Craig Zobel as The Penguin rolls on. Also, watch the above video for our spoiler-free interviews with Colin Farrell, Cristin Miliotti, and the full cast!