We didn't initially pay a huge amount of attention to rumours that Mark Strong had been cast in The Penguin in a mystery role, but his trainer has now let the cat bat out of the bag in a series of Instagram posts.
Giacomo Farci was asked if it's true he worked on The Batman follow-up, promoting him to reply, "Yes, I've trained Mark for it." Asked if he could reveal who the Shazam! star is playing, Farci said, "I cannot answer to this question but I'm sure you will figure it out."
Needless to say, we're guessing he won't be reprising his role as the villainous Doctor Sivana, a villain whose story ended on a largely unsatisfying note thanks to an unresolved cliffhanger in both the first movie and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
So, who has Strong been cast as in The Penguin?
The most popular theory online is that he's playing the villainous Hugo Strange, a character who could quite easily be used to set the stage for The Batman II. After all, we're expecting to spend a fair bit of time in Arkham Asylum next time around with The Joker and The Riddler in there plotting something dastardly together.
Then again, we can't discount the possibility of Strong portraying one of the many crime bosses who set out to make Gotham City their own in the wake of Carmine Falcone's death (bringing him into conflict with "Oz").
"Oh, tons of violence, abject darkness and a man and a great struggle to try and claw his way to the top" Colin Farrell previously said of what can can expect from The Penguin. "You know, there’s a power grab in Gotham now. It’s dark, man. Lauren LeFranc with her room of writers wrote eight extraordinary episodes."
"I mean, just really, really bold stuff. I couldn’t believe that it got as dark as it gets." He'd go on to say that the show, "would be a Hard R."
Let us know who you think Strong could be playing in The Penguin in the comments section below.
The Penguin stars Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O'Connell, Clancy Brown, and Michael Zegen.
The series 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 Batman spin-off will premiere on Max this fall.