Will he ever portray the Penguin again? Well, it’s not easy being the Gentleman of Crime in Gotham City, particularly under all of Colin Farrell’s cumbersome SFX make-up that was crucial to creating his titular character for the upcoming HBO Original series, The Penguin. And after enduring the grueling transformation process of becoming one of the Batman’s baddies once again, the Oscar-nominated actor (The Banshees of Inisherin) doesn’t know if he wants to play Oz ever again. Farell said in an interview with Total Film magazine (per GamesRadar+):
“I don’t know, man. Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was b*tching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f—ing wanted it to be finished. I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’ I was still grateful and still honored.”
Farrell, who first portrayed Oz Cobb — an offshoot of the character’s name in the comic books and other media, Oswald Cobblepot — in director Matt Reeves and the Robert Pattinson-led The Batman (2022), continued by saying during the same sit-down (below):
“I grew up watching Burgess Meredith and then Danny DeVito was my Penguin. So, being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged. But by the end of it… It’s not like I didn’t know who I was, and I was going out and burning cars and sh*t. But, if you take what Matt Reeves created and then what Lauren [LeFranc] did and what Mike [Marino, prosthetics and make-up designer] did and put them all together, it was a really powerful experience.”
Colin Farrell ‘Never’ Wanted to Suit Up as Penguin ‘Again’
Colin Farrell has already teased that The Penguin series is “twisted” and “incredibly violent.” However, it’s disturbing to hear how torturous the actor’s time spent in that special effects make-up was on the set of showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s upcoming HBO Original series. And when all of the carnage was finally captured for the small screen, Farrell’s initial reaction was to never suit up as Oz again. The actor behind the titular character said in the same interview about possibly returning for a Season 2:
“Lauren said, ‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense, would you talk about it?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And maybe in a year I would. But when I finished I was like, ‘I never want to put that fu—ing suit and that fu—ing head on again.”
For those who are interested in watching The Penguin, and hoping against hope that the Dark Knight himself will make an appearance, fans shouldn’t get their hopes up. In the latest issue of Total Film magazine, The Batman’s director and Penguin executive producer Matt Reeves emphatically revealed that the Caped Crusader will NOT answer the Bat-Signal in the HBO Original series. Reeves said (per GamesRadar+):
“I’m a point-of-view filmmaker. When I’m doing a Batman story, Batman and Bruce [Wayne] is going to be the main point of view. To explore the rogues gallery, they could never get the real estate we can do in a series. So, Batman is in this [show] only as a sense that he’s a presence. You’re aware that all of these events began because of the Riddler, but the Riddler doesn’t appear, and Batman doesn’t appear.”
Fans of Oz and Colin Farrell needn’t worry about the future, though, despite the Oscar nominee’s feelings about suiting up as the Gentleman of Crime again. The Penguin will return, and he will do so in the next installment of Matt Reeves’ Dark Knight saga. “The plan is to shoot [The Batman II] next year, and we’re finishing up the script now,” Reeves told SFX magazine (per Deadline). Reeves continued by saying:
Colin will be part of the movie. We’ve shared [the script] as we’ve been going along with DC and the studio, and they’re super excited.
Until then, though, check out Colin Farrell’s return as Oz — not to be confused with the great and powerful wizard — when The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19 on HBO. And be sure to check out a special five-minute BTS look at The Batman spin-off (below):