Matt Reeves’ 2022 superhero blockbuster The Batman has its first spinoff in The Penguin, a gritty new crime thriller set in the film’s world of Gotham City and starring Colin Farrell reprising his role as the series’ titular villain-protagonist Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, aka the mobster dubbed “Penguin” in Batman’s rogue gallery of iconic evil-doers.
Colin Farrell’s Penguin in “The Batman”
Source: Warner
The eight-episode miniseries was created and written by Lauren LeFranc, with Craig Zobel directing the first three episodes. Cristin Milioti portrays Sofia Falcone in The Penguin, the main rival for control of Gotham’s underworld and daughter of the former crime lord Carmine Falcone (portrayed by John Turturro in The Batman).
The series serves as a continuation of the events from Reeves’ spectacular film, and will likewise set up events for The Batman Part II, which was just pushed back from its 2025 release date to a 2026 release instead.
You can watch the full teaser trailer for Max’s “The Penguin” below…
A teaser released in 2023 featured some additional footage and behind-the-scenes peeks at production of The Penguin. Everything we’ve seen so far gives off strong Sopranos and Scarface vibes, which is of course precisely what those involved in the project and everyone who’s seen or heard much about it has always said to expect.
It also maintains the look and feel of The Batman, which captured a unique noir aesthetic that I hope is maintained, even if they toy with it a bit from film to film for variety. I’ll be interested to see how many of the other supporting cast of Batman-world characters show up in The Penguin.
Robert Pattinson, who plays Bruce Wayne and his costumed superhero persona in The Batman, is expected to appear in The Penguin as well, although whether it’s as Bruce or Batman remains to be seen. It’s hard to imagine they’d pass up the chance to have Batman appear and generate extra viewership and coverage, but it’s also possible they will stick to the notion of reserving Batman himself for the big screen and using Bruce to whet our appetites for the sequel.
Some fans and media were surprised by the announced delay in The Batman Part II’s release until October 2nd, 2026. The fear was that this could be another case of Warner Bros. Discovery deciding to deep-six a project and just delaying saying so to avoid the negative publicity it would generate.
Others worried that DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn’s and Peter Safran’s upcoming DC cinematic reboot was either cannibalizing Reeves’ Batman plans or outright cancelling them.
The truth is Reeves has a lucrative filmmaking deal with Warner and gave them an acclaimed and financially successful reboot of their key superhero property, Batman.
Ever since Aquaman topped $1.1 billion in 2018, The Batman at $772 million is the highest-grossing DC movie of any sort besides Joker’s $1 billion performance. And it released in the middle of a new Covid strain’s arrival in early March of 2022, so with theatrical still struggling to get back to business, The Batman’s performance could’ve easily topped $800 million if it released later in the year as infections dropped and box office rose.
With The Penguin a high-profile exclusive streaming series continuing the film’s blockbuster run and setting up the next movie, and with WBD trying so hard to send a filmmaker-friendly message to top artists for development deals — such as Warner’s recently announced production deal with Tom Cruise — it’s highly unlikely the studio would risk further controversy and criticism by backing out of a deal with someone like Matt Reeves. They’d also probably have to pony up some serious money to break the deal, too, and added debt like that isn’t what WBD wants right now.
So no, The Batman Part II won’t be cancelled.
I do believe, however, that this decision was made to ensure as much of DC and WBD’s attention and marketing in 2025 is available for rebranding DC cinema and promoting Gunn’s Superman, which he wrote and directed. In turn, they want all public and media eyes on Superman, without comparisons or other complications that might arise from releasing a separate standalone Batman movie.
Another reason for the delay might be that Gunn simply asked Reeves to prioritize the Arkham Asylum Max streaming series. This miniseries set in Gotham City will not be part of Reeves’ own world of Batman movies and series, however. Instead, the project evolved and is now part of the new shared superhero world of the DCU, with Gunn’s Superman and the other slate of movies in that connected universe.
In this way, then, Arkham Asylum ties into the new DCU alongside director Andy Muschietti’s upcoming Brave and the Bold movie, which will reboot the shared-universe version of Batman to exist in the same world as Gunn’s new Superman. So it makes sense that perhaps Gunn needed the setup and tie-in for Brave and the Bold to get underway sooner, requiring a delay for The Batman Part II.
There’s always the surprise chance that Gunn has convinced Reeves to merge his Batman plans into the DCU after all, and that we’re going to hear an announcement at some point. Or maybe prioritizing Arkham Asylum and seeing more of what’s going on with Superman will wind up making Reeves change his mind about letting his Batman world merge into the DCU and combine his own plans with those of Gunn and Safran (and Muschietti, presumably).
Much could happen, and much time remains ahead of The Penguin’s release later this year (probably in late-September or sometime in October, to compliment the release of Joker: Folie à Deux). If it’s as great as The Batman was and as this first teaser appears to be, then The Penguin could wind up launching additional miniseries to expand Reeves’ Batman world, including (hopefully) a Catwoman miniseries and other villains.
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