First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the parasol.
Following an explosive San Diego Comic-Con trailer, Empire has shared a new look at Collin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot (or "Oz Cobb"), as he sets his sights on taking over Gotham as the city's new crime boss in HBO's The Batman spin-off series, The Penguin.
Picking up shortly after Carmine Falcone's death towards the end of Matt Reeves' movie, the limited series will find Oz attempting to establish himself as the notorious gangster's successor - but he runs into an unforeseen roadblock in the form of the possibly even more ruthless and unhinged Sofia Falcone.
“Matt [Reeves came up] with this Scarface story – a rise to power,” series creator Lauren LeFranc explains. “I turned it into a psychological character study of this man. Mobsters historically are larger than life, so there is that slightly elevated quality to it, but he’s just a man. A very complicated man.”
The iconic Batman villain has been depicted a number of ways on the page and screen over the years, but usually comes from a wealthy family.
“This is what differentiates him from previous versions of the Penguin in the comics, where he used to come from a wealthy, well-known family,” LeFranc notes. “Matt had already made him an underdog in that he was number two to Carmine Falcone in the film, but we didn’t know anything about his family. So it was important to me that he comes from nothing, and he’s really aching to get more status and be seen as more important.”
Check out the new still at the link below.
The limited series' cast also includes Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (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).
The show is executive produced by Matt Reeves, Dylan Clark, Colin Farrell, Lauren LeFranc, who writes and serves as showrunner, Craig Zobel, who directs the first three episodes, and Bill Carraro.
Based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, The Penguin 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. Daniel Pipski also serves as executive producer.
The Penguin is set to premiere on HBO and Max on September 19.