Last year's WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed a great many TV shows and movies, including The Batman spin-off, The Penguin. During a Q4 earnings call on Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared a positive update on where things stand with the Elseworlds project.
"Looking ahead, we’ve got one of the best lineups in the history of HBO," he exclaimed. "This next quarter, we’ll have Hacks and House of the Dragon, followed by DC’s The Penguin and the new Dune series."
"Then in 2025, we’ll kick off the year with the new season of The White Lotus, followed by The Last of Us and Euphoria, just to name a few."
That puts The Penguin on track for a late 2024 debut and lines up with what we've previously heard about plans for the show. However, we'd recommend taking Zaslav's comments with a pinch of salt because, as far as we're aware, Dune: The Sisterhood/Dune: Prophecy hasn't even started shooting yet!
We know Warner Bros. Discovery is keen to monetise its DC catalogue, with DC Studios' Creature Commandos confirmed for a 2024 premiere on Max and Peacemaker season 2 and Waller somewhere on the horizon. On the theatrical side, Superman: Legacy begins shooting imminently with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow likely up next.
Despite the DCU reboot, The Batman II is still happening; however, with Jeffrey Wright recently revealing he's yet to see a script, we're starting to think it won't meet its planned October 2025 date.
"It’s going to be an eight-part thing," Colin Farrell previously said of The Penguin. "Around Oz’s rise to power, filling that power vacuum created when Falcone was killed. Matt’s idea was to have the Penguin show begin about a week after the end of the Batman film."
"And if it works, if the trajectory is interesting, and the audience goes for it, and we do our jobs right, the second [The Batman] feature will pick up where the HBO show will end."
In terms of specific plot details, very little is known about the series. However, we expect it to follow Oswald Cobblepot's rise to power in Gotham, establishing him as the city's new crimelord ahead of The Batman II; whether he'll be that sequel's big bad remains to be seen, especially with The Joker no doubt eager to escape Arkham.
Lauren LeFranc serves as The Penguin's writer, executive producer, and showrunner, while The Batman director Matt Reeves executive produces as well.
Colin Farrell, meanwhile, reprises his role as "Oz" and will also be joined in the series by Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, Theo Rossi, Michael Zegen, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Deirdre O’Connell.
Stay tuned for updates.