Good news for DC fans who haven’t gotten around to The Batman, but are itching to check out the spin-off series, The Penguin, has just been shared by filmmaker Matt Reeves.
On Thursday, September 19, The Penguin will premiere on HBO. Starring Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobb/The Penguin, the limited series charts the title character’s rise to power in Gotham’s criminal underworld following the death of mobster Carmine Falcone. With The Penguin set one week after the events of The Batman, some fans were naturally curious to learn if they would need to watch the 2022 movie to fully understand what is happening in the spin-off series. Luckily for them, Reeves recently revealed that he does not consider The Batman required viewing for The Penguin.
“Here’s the thing: I think that, in terms of it being like an epic crime saga, it is something that’s deepened by watching all of it. But the truth of the matter is that each one, of course, needs to live on its own,” Reeves said during an interview with Collider. “So The Batman lives on its own. The Penguin series lives on its own. The Batman 2 will live on its own, but it will be deepened […]”
The filmmaker, who is an executive producer on The Penguin, added, “You won’t have to be prepared for what happens. You’ll just understand that that’s the entry point of where this character is coming in and the events that unfold are unfolding in a way where it’s not like, oh, gee, I needed to see those eight episodes of that show or I won’t understand what’s going on. It’s not, really, it doesn’t really work that way.”
The Penguin bridges the gap between The Batman movies
While The Penguin will seemingly stand on its own, showrunner Lauren LeFranc previously shared back in July that The Batman spin-off series will be “the bridge between” The Batman and the forthcoming The Batman Part II. “We’re going almost directly into the second film Matt has planned,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
Besides Farrell, The Penguin stars Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone and Clancy Brown as Salvator Maroni, with Michael Zegen, Rhenzy Feliz, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Theo Rossi, Carmen Ejogo, François Chau, David H. Holmes, Michael Kelly, Craig Walker, and Mark Strong also part of the main and recurring cast of the upcoming DC series.
The Penguin premieres on HBO on September 19, 2024.
