Irish star Colin Farrell is set to regale audiences with his performance as one of DC’s most notorious villains in The Penguin. The Oscar nominee will portray Gotham city’s infamous gangster Oswald Cobblepot in the Max series which develops on events from Matt Reeves’ 2022 film The Batman starring Robert Pattinson.
While Reeves’ dark and edgy film was peppered with notable violence, the film received only a PG-13 rating. But going by what Farrell has hinted about The Penguin, this rating might just have to be modified for the show. According to The Banshees of Inisherin star, the series will push the limits of violence through an extremely dark narrative.
Colin Farrell’s The Penguin Is Going to Make Stomachs Churn
One of the big shows to come out in 2024 will be The Penguin starring Colin Farrell. Based on one of DC’s cult villains Oswald Cobblepot aka Penguin, the series consisting of 8 episodes, is seen as a spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and will trace the origin story of the notorious gangster. Farrell who stunned viewers with his unrecognizable transformation in The Batman, is expected to hit this one out of the park as well.
While The Batman was dark and tangibly violent, it looks like this series will surpass the film in these aspects judging by Farrell’s revelations. The Alexander star spoke to MovieZine about many aspects of the show that could give it an R-rating. Without succumbing to any spoilers, the actor teased the audiences with some juicy details.
“It’s dark. That’s what I can tell you about it. It’s really dark. It’s really heavy, I think— it certainly was doing it. Which is not to say I didn’t have fun, I had an amazing time doing it. It’s incredibly violent. It’s one man’s rise to what he’s always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status.”
The celebrity also stated that the show begins at the end of The Batman with Carmine Falcone’s death leading to the desperate search for power by various people. This ultimately heralds the rise of Farrell’s Penguin.
Colin Farrell On Why Penguin Deserved His Own Show
When Colin Farrell appeared on screen as Oswald Cobblepot aka Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, audiences and critics could sense that the actor was going to bring something special to the character. But Farrell did not think that this role would be expanded further beyond the film, although he believed that the nuances of the character deserved a bigger stage.
Speaking to Variety, the Irish star spoke about the unique aspect of Penguin and his pivotal role in the legacy of DC and Batman. He believed the physical and emotional transformation that he went through with the character in The Batman definitely warranted a longer narrative.
“The only thing I had an idea was that I wasn’t nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to. Because there was all this extraordinary work done by [makeup artists] Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine and his team, and I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more.”
As it turned out, Farrell’s wish was granted with a full-fledged series featuring the cult villain receiving a greenlight. The Penguin is due to stream on Max in the latter half of 2024, and is one of the most anticipated shows across the world.
