The Penguin is ending, but you will be able to console yourself with other stories from The Batman

News culture The Penguin is ending, but you will be able to console yourself with other stories from The Batman

The Penguin ends but…

For several weeks now, subscribers to the HBO platform have been able to discover the series The Penguin. The series follows the rise of Oz Cobb, a gangster known as the Penguin – and most recently seen in The Batman – as he transforms into the crime king of Gotham City. “Batman can't walk into a 7-Eleven, he'd look like an idiot. He chooses the place where he can reveal himself. But Oz is not related to what Batman is. Batman comes out at night, but Oz is dark during the day“, Reeves recently told filmmaker Andy Serkis about this particular character during a Zoom call last week, relayed in Interview Magazine. Reeves previously directed The Batman in 2022, with Robert Pattinson, and has no plans to stop there in the exploration of this mythical universe. The man says that future spin-offs of the feature film will be character-driven, like The Penguin. “The story of Oz is the story of Oz, and the idea is to do these other stories the same way“, he said.

SERKIS : In terms of the universe, do you see a rhythm? Do you think they're going to bring back the Penguin or are you going to take us into Gotham through a different lens?

REEVES : Yes. We've talked about it, and it's exciting because people are buying into the show now. My dream is coming true, which is very exciting, and HBO has been incredibly supportive from the beginning. Now to see that the series is being adopted is really, really exciting. We talked about doing other series. I wanted to make sure we weren't going to do an origin story, like so many other shows have done. I think the idea of ​​being able to put a lens on these characters is really exciting. It's about cities and their dysfunctions, and the world and its dysfunctions, which is what Batman stories are all about. It's still about Gotham, a place that should be better. And you can experience this epic almost novelistic crime saga, but you can also have these distinct experiences. They have their own dramatic value. So the story of Oz is the story of Oz, and the idea is to do these other stories the same way.

A complicated shoot?

Overall, the reviews are rave for The Peguin, particularly praising Farrell's performance and the dark and realistic atmosphere of the series. On Rotten Tomatoes, the famous review aggregator, the miniseries reaches a recommendation score of 94%. While The Batman suggested violence in a more subtle way, The Penguin series takes a much more explicit approach, particularly when it comes to depictions of violence against women. A difference in tone which also pushed certain actors in the film to decline their participation in the series. This is the case of John Turturro, interpreter of Carmine Falcone, who felt that the violence depicted in the series did not correspond to his vision of the character. For his part, actor Colin Farrell (who played Pinguouin) will not only have good memories of filming as he “marked” it as he explained to the Total Film editorial team:

Don't get me wrong, I loved it (doing The Penguin), but it left a bit of a scar on me. At the end, I was complaining and bitching to those who would listen, saying that I absolutely wanted it to stop (…) Lauren (LeFranc, the screenwriter and producer) said to me: “listen , if I find a coherent way to fix this, would you like to continue? » And I said “Absolutely”. Maybe in a year I'll be ready. But when I finished (filming all eight episodes), I was like, “I don't ever want to put on that damn costume and that damn mask again.” »