THE PENGUIN Premiere Delayed As HBO Boss Shares His Take On Marvel Studios' TV Struggles

THE PENGUIN Premiere Delayed As HBO Boss Shares His Take On Marvel Studios' TV Struggles

It's been confirmed that The Batman spin-off, The Penguin, has been pushed further into 2024, while HBO and Max Content CEO Casey Bloys has shared his take on "superhero fatigue" and the MCU on Disney+.

By JoshWilding - Nov 03, 2023 06:11 AM EST
Filed Under: The Batman
Source: Deadline

Last month, we learned that Daredevil: Born Again is being creatively overhauled by Marvel Studios. Moving forward, the studio will hire proper showrunners to develop Disney+ projects in the same way other TV shows are created (until now, the studio has been approaching them like they're movies). 

Talking at an event yesterday, HBO and Max Content CEO Casey Bloys shared his thoughts on so-called "superhero fatigue" as the cable network/streamer gears up to release a slate of DCU and Elseworlds TV shows. 

"I don’t know that it’s necessarily tentpole fatigue as much as it is a sameness of storytelling," he told journalists. "I think the key, even within DC, is trying to tell different stories in different styles, to not try to do the same show over and over and over again."

"I would say Peacemaker is a very different show tonally than The Penguin. So, there’s not a uniformity to the storytelling and I think that helps."

Sharing his thoughts on Marvel Studios' recent woes, Bloys added, "Unfortunately, Marvel, as good as their shows are, there’s probably been a lot of them. That’s one of the advantages we have at Warner Bros. is it’s not just one set of stories. There’s a lot of stories you can go to."

Waller is currently in the works for Max, as is Peacemaker season 2, Paradise Lost, Booster Gold, Lanterns, and the animated Creature Commandos

Then, there's The Penguin. A series spinning out of the events of Matt Reeves' The Batman, it started shooting back in March before production was suspended in June as a result of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Deadline now confirms its planned Spring 2024 premiere window has shifted to next Fall. 

In terms of 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 locked up in 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.

The Batman II is set to be released in theaters on October 3, 2025.

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JayBarrick
JayBarrick - 11/3/2023, 6:49 AM
Pretty much right. Not the only problem, but one of the most prominent.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 11/3/2023, 6:56 AM
"Unfortunately, Marvel, as good as their shows are, there’s probably been a lot of them."

Okay, so far so good...

"That’s one of the advantages we have at Warner Bros. is it’s not just one set of stories. There’s a lot of stories you can go to."

...aaaaand we're back to not making sense.



You can't just place the blame for the MCU's decline on oversaturation, and then present your own brand as having an abundance of new material in an already saturated market! Yes, the market is filled to the brim with content, but when your selling point is "more content", how do you honestly expect this to go?

Oh, and the "sameness" complaint from earlier is just... yeah, no, I'm not even gonna entertain that with a counter-example.

Watch the opposing brand, and learn from its wins and failures. Don't just follow the doctrine of your followers' favorite buzzwords because that's what they like to hear.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 11/3/2023, 7:36 AM
@DrReedRichards - I think he was saying Marvel put out too many shows that are similar in tone. (Which I don't really agree with. Just look at them lol. WandaVision was like an homage to the history of sitcoms. Loki is a multiverse hopping adventure. Falcon and Winter Soldier was a political thriller type thing. Ms Marvel was a teen drama. She-Hulk was a 4th wall breaking comedy. Like, these couldn't have been more different.)

But when he says DC has more stories to go to, I think he means they have a more diverse pool of stories to pull from? Because he certainly isn't talking about the AMOUNT of shows they are putting out. I think he's just incorrectly claiming that DC has more variety to choose from in terms of tone.

He's still wrong lol. Marvel and DC both have a massive history of characters and stories with different tones that they can utilize.

I almost feel like he didn't want to publicly bad mouth Marvel by saying a lot of their projects have been poorly written? Maybe? I'm just guessing really.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 11/3/2023, 7:42 AM
@CorndogBurglar -

I agree with you that he was clearly tip-toeing around what he really wanted to say. Eventually he censored himself so much that he ended up promising that WB/DC would provide the very thing that is responsible for the recent D+/MCU decline.

Just tell him not to clarify that said decline was only recent. His brand's fans are NOT gonna like that...
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 11/3/2023, 6:57 AM
Idk about that.

Regardless of how you much you enjoyed the shows or not , a Moon Knight is not the same thing as a She Hulk which is not the same thing as a FaTWS which is not the same as a Loki etc…

However , I might agree with him in regards to there being too much with has made it feel scattershot in terms of the overarching story.

Anyway speaking of Penguin , I enjoyed Farrell’s portrayal in The Batman but I am still unsure about him being the lead of a show so we’ll see…

However , the first look we got was certainly intriguing imo.

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bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/3/2023, 7:00 AM
@TheVisionary25 - they definitely each over their own unique things, but overall it just follows are similar narrative, has the same visual style, the same humor, and (yes I'm gonna say it) the same third acts/finales imo
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 11/3/2023, 7:01 AM
@bkmeijer1 - idk about the same narrative or visual style or humor (im not even sure what that means)

However yes , not all of them needed to end in a big battle imo
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/3/2023, 7:40 AM
@TheVisionary25 - with narrative I mean that it often follows predictable story beats, with visual style the blue/orange look & same cinematography, and with humor undercutting serious moments with jokes & overuse of quips/snarkiness.

These are just a few examples, but they just make it all feel kinda similar. Only Werewolf, Eternals amd Loki really felt different in Phase 4.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 11/3/2023, 7:46 AM
@bkmeijer1 - to each their own but I haven’t felt that personally
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