Yesterday afternoon, the news broke that The Penguin star Colin Farrell is in talks to play the title character in DC Studios' Sgt. Rock movie. Daniel Craig had been eyed by filmmaker Luca Guadagnino for his next feature but ultimately passed.
That wouldn't be the first time the former 007 has missed out on a superhero role as he was supposed to suit up as Thor's brother, Balder, in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' Illuminati sequence.
Back to Farrell, and the response to him pulling double duty in the DCU as Sgt. Rock and The Penguin in Matt Reeves' Bat-verse has been a little mixed. There have also been questions about whether this casting will have an impact on The Batman Part II, a movie many believe will never happen at this rate.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sgt. Rock is expected to shoot in England this summer. As for The Batman sequel, "[Farrell is] likely to return [as The Penguin] in Reeves' The Batman sequel, which DC Studios hopes could be shooting by the end of the year."
It all sounds a little vague still and it's no wonder there are concerns Reeves will never get cameras rolling on his long-delayed follow-up. Complicating matters is the fact DC Studios is moving forward with its own Batman movie, The Brave and the Bold.
"I signed up for three Batman films, but I didn’t know if I’d be in the second film," Farrell said last year. "Matt Reeves is a brilliant writer and an extraordinary filmmaker, and what I'm most excited-slash-nervous about in the second film is not what Oz does - or what predicaments he finds himself in, or what moments of success he gets to experience – but what his voice is."
"How is his personality? It was forming and changing in the limited series, and, by the end of the eight episodes, it's concretized into something else. There is a degree of almost delusion psychopathy present in the last scene," he continued. "So how is that taken up in the second film? I was told I have five or six scenes. I don't have any hopes or any expectations."
Doing the rounds to promote Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson was asked if he'll begin working on the movie soon. "I f***ing hope so," he replied with a laugh. "I started out as young Batman and I’m going to be f***ing old Batman by the sequel."
Back to Sgt. Rock, the movie was written by Justin Kuritzkes - who penned Challengers and Queer for Guadagnino - and will revolve around the tough-as-nails leader of Easy Company, the combat unit fighting Nazi forces in Europe.
The Batman 2 will be released in theaters on October 1, 2027. Sgt. Rock is currently undated.