Does it feel like yonks since Matt Reeves unleashed The Batman, his moody and noir-ish take on Gotham’s dark knight? It’s been well over two years now – but while The Batman Part II is still a way off, there’s a sequel of a different sort on the way. Long-gestating streaming series The Penguin will see Colin Farrell revive the role of Oz Cobb, and – as its new trailer makes clear – the series is very much a The Batman sequel, following on from the devastating flood that occurred at the end of Reeves’ film. Centrally, though, it concerns Oz trying to make a power grab in the wake of Carmine Falcone’s death – which the fellow Falcones are not best pleased about. Watch the trailer here:
Where The Batman was essentially a detective movie, The Penguin looks set to be a proper crime show set in this version of Gotham – less concerned with setpieces than character drama and political subterfuge in the criminal underbelly. Still, we get Farrell spraying off a machine gun. Most of the action, though, seems to be in the tension between Cobb and Cristin Militia’s Sofia Falcone, who along with her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) is hoping to keep their mob business strictly within the family. Plus, we have Clancy Brown as gangster Salvatore Maroni, and Michael Kelly as Johnny Vitti. The eight-episode series is now confirmed to being streaming in September, with multiple instalments helmed by Mare Of Easttown’s Craig Zobel. Reeves serves as executive producer, with Lauren LeFranc as showrunner.
Will The Penguin provide a satisfying second chapter in The Batman saga? Hopefully. Will it set the stage for The Batman Part II? Possible. And will we ever get bored of Colin Farrell doing that accent? Certainly not. More answers will arrive from September.