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Warner Bros. clearly has eyes on creating an expansive franchise around The Batman. Though Matt Reeves’ reboot will be disconnected from the wider DCEU, it’ll spawn various spinoffs of its own. For one, there’s that Gotham P.D. series that’s headed to HBO Max. You might also wonder if all those familiar comic book characters who’ll appear in the first film to star Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight will get their own offshoots, too.
In the case of Oswald Cobblepot, at least, we’re hearing that’s the plan. Our reliable sources – the same ones who told us Ben Affleck would return in The Flash long before that was confirmed – have told us that the studio plans to make a Batman spinoff based around the Penguin for HBO Max. Colin Farrell will make his debut as the crime boss in The Batman, though he’s completely unrecognizable under pounds of transformative prosthetics and make-up.
You would expect Farrell to return for the Penguin spinoff, then, but we have yet to get that clarified at this point. So it’s feasible that the project may take the form of a prequel that explores Cobblepot in his younger days, with another actor found. Some fans may say that that would be too close to Robin Lord Taylor’s Oswald on Gotham, but HBO Max is already treading into that show’s waters with its Gotham P.D. series.
Likewise, it’s also yet to be confirmed whether this Penguin vehicle is a movie or a TV series. You might expect a miniseries of some sort, but a movie is also possible, as WB is beefing up its slate of original DC features right now – see Black Canary, Batgirl and Blue Beetle, all of which have been announced this summer. Penguin isn’t as obvious a choice for a spinoff as, say, Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, but he’s still one of the most recognizable rogues in Batman’s gallery so you can see why the studio would be keen to do more with him.
We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops. In the meantime, The Batman is coming to theaters on March 4th, 2022.