‘The Penguin’ Pursues Own Twisted Version Of American Dream In New Trailer Unveiled At Comic-Con; Matt Reeves Says Harvey Weinstein Was One Inspiration For Look Of The Character
HBO on Saturday unveiled a new trailer for The Penguin, its DC series centered on Colin Farrell’s Batman villain of the same name, which is slated to debut on Thursday, September 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT and will also be available to stream on Max.
The Penguin takes place following the events of Matt Reeves’ blockbuster The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, watching as Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin, makes a play to seize the reins of the crime world in Gotham.
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Developed by writer-showrunner Lauren LeFranc, the show’s cast also includes Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.
In the trailer for the eight-episode limited series, from Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios, we see Farrell’s Oz discuss how he’s looking for his own version of “the American dream, a beautiful story with a happy ending.”
However, he continues, “That ain’t the way the world works. America’s a hustle, not that I’m complaining.”
Later, as we’re introduced to characters played by Milioti, Feliz, Kelly and more, there’s talk of a “gang war,” and Milioti’s Sofia shares how she’s been let out of Arkham Asylum after being “rehabilitated.”
Oz then talks about his plans to “burn down an empire from the inside out” — warning, “Trust me, it’s just the beginning.”
The new trailer for The Penguin emerged out of a Comic-Con panel in Hall F featuring cast members Milioti, Feliz and Farrell (Zooming in from Macao), as well as LeFranc, Reeves and EP Dylan Clark.
Reeves described The Penguin as a character stepping into “a power vacuum in Gotham” who is “totally underestimated but has this fire inside of him.” He also at one point suddenly dropped the bomb that disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein was one visual model for the creation of the character through makeup. Later on, he confirmed that Farrell will be back for his next Batman film, which shoots next year.
Noting that “the lore of this world held such an attraction for me,” Farrell saw him as someone with “violence and pain etched on [his] face.” Over the course of the series, he said, we’ll look at “this life and how broken it is, [someone embodying] this depth of ambition and greed, and the consequences of events from Oz’s childhood.”
As much as he was “a disaster,” Farrell said, The Penguin was an incredibly “tasty character” to dig into.
On the subject of the dynamic between Oz and Sofia, Farrell said we’ll see the characters have “a shared history that goes way back” and have a lot in common as people who have had to “fight” their whole lives, though in the end they wind up “on opposite sides of a very real argument that will be very consequential for Gotham.”
EPs for The Penguin include Reeves, Dylan Clark, Farrell, LeFranc, Craig Zobel (who directs the first three episodes) and Bill Carraro. Based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, the show is produced by Reeves’ 6th & Idaho Productions and Dylan Clark Productions in association with Warner Bros Television, where Reeves and 6th & Idaho are under an overall deal, and DC Studios. Daniel Pipski also serves as executive producer.
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