Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Penguin’s premiere episode
Colin Farrell went all in for his role in The Penguin, but there was one bit of his extensive bodysuit that was all out when it came to his “nude” scene in the opening episode of The Batman spin-off. As the actor recounted in an interview with People, the prosthetics for the series included a detachable “penguin” penis.
There is a lot about The Batman’s version of Penguin that you won’t find in the comic books. From his name change to Oz Cobb to the lack of a hooked nose, monocle, or cigarette, there have been many surprises in Farrell’s appearance as the DC villain, but none more surprising than the revelation that the actor’s suit included an unexpected appendage. As Farrell explained:
“I had a bodysuit, so I was basically covered wrist to ankle. Only things that were me were my hands and feet. Everything else, including ears, were pieces. Everything was covered. [Mike] Marino is so twisted and brilliant. He was like, ‘I made you a penguin penis.’ I said, ‘Really? They’re not even going to see it. I don’t know if I want to walk on set with a penguin penis.’ And he was like, ‘No, no, no, dude. It’s detachable, it’s Velcro. It’s got a beak at the end of it.’ So I had a penguin penis.”
The extensive detail of Farrell’s suit may seem a little over the top for a character that you don’t expect to get naked. However, the purpose of the suit became apparent towards the end of the series’ debut episode, when Oz found himself stripped and tied to a chair by Sophia Falcone who wanted to know what happened to her brother, Alberto (Spoiler – Oz blew him away). You would be hard-pressed to actually see the “penguin penis” in action – that sounds weird – but there is probably someone out there right now skipping through frame by frame to try and spot it.
Colin Farrell Believes an Old School Penguin Would Not Have Worked
While there are always some people who want to see certain things when it comes to their favorite comic book heroes and villains realized on screen, Farrell’s Penguin is very different to most other iterations. From Burgess Meredith TV version, with his colorful suit and trick umbrella, to Tim Burton’s darker, monstrous iteration played by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns, there have been several takes on the character that all have their own attributes. However, Farrell believes that those Penguin designs wouldn’t fly in the new show.
“If it wasn’t for Mike’s design, I’m telling you now, if it was just me with a f—ing cigarette and a top hat and a bit of a limp and an umbrella that was a machine gun, we wouldn’t have had the HBO show.”
With a strong start in both viewership and reviews, it seems that many people have been quite happy with this grounded Penguin. Whether the series can maintain this throughout the series, we will discover very soon as the show continues on Sunday with a new episode on HBO and Max.