The Batman came out on March 4, 2022, and was a tremendous success for DC, with the new iteration of The Dark Knight becoming instantly iconic on screen. Following the success of the film, Matt Reeves has been slowly crafting his own corner of the DC universe, with interconnected projects based on characters from Batman's extensive rogues gallery. Matt Reeves' BatVerse will be a separate universe from the main DC Universe being built on the guidance of James Gunn and Peter Safran and will be branded as DC Elseworlds. One character from The Batman that was an instant fan favorite was Colin Farrell's large and foul-mouthed Penguin, owing to the unrecognizable performance, dark humor, and meticulous makeup of the character. So now Oswald is getting his own series on Max (formerly known as HBO Max) to expand upon the character and the universe. The Penguin will be the first spin-off show from The Batman, a crime drama giving us a detailed look at the mechanics of organized crime in this take on Gotham.

Apart from, The Penguin, Matt Reeves is also developing a GCPD and Arkham Asylum show, along with exploring the option of developing feature-length projects based on characters from Batman's iconic rogues' gallery like Clayface and Professor Pyg, in a similar vein to Todd Philips' Joker. Batman is one of the rare comic-book characters whose supporting players and villains are so interesting that they can stand on their own. With The Penguin, Matt Reeves and team will be trying to take a deep dive into the character of Penguin and the criminal underbelly of Gotham, in a way that the time confines of a movie don't allow. Here's everything we know so far about the next chapter in Reeve's BatVerse, as it will be told in Colin Farrell's The Penguin.

Editor's note: This article was last updated on March 22.

Does 'The Penguin' Have a Release Date?

There is no official release date for The Penguin yet but it is currently scheduled to release sometime in 2024. Colin Farrell confirmed in January 2023 that the production was ready to start rolling from February. The series was in production in New York City for a while before the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes put a pause on filming. With the strikes now over, The Penguin has resumed filming, so it looks like fans can expect to jump back into the world of Gotham's crime and corruption soon enough.

Is There a Trailer for 'The Penguin'?

While not a full trailer, Max has given us a featurette that gives us a glimpse of what's to come. Taking place after the flood of Gotham City, The Penguin is looking to take over the criminal underworld. With Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) gone, the hierarchy of power is changing, and no one will stand in Penguin's way (except maybe Batman).

Max released the official teaser trailer for The Penguin on March 22, 2024, giving us a better look at the series and what it will entail for the titular villain.

Additional footage from The Penguin was featured prominently in HBO's 2024 preview video, titled "The One to Watch in 2024".

What Do We Know About the Plot of 'The Penguin'?

Matt Reeves confirmed in an interview with Collider that The Penguin will pick up from where things were left off in The Batman, and lead directly into The Batman: Part Two. At the end of The Batman, Riddler's grand plan leaves Gotham flooded, with many areas still submerged underwater, setting the city on a back foot as it seeks restoration and retribution. Gotham's biggest crime boss Carmine Falcone, was busted by the GCPD and then killed by the Riddler, leaving the top spot in Gotham's hierarchy of crime vacant. We last see Oswald Cobblepot looking at the sunrise the morning after the flood, the vision of the rise of a new empire in front of his eyes. The Penguin has been described as a Scarface-like tale, where Colin Farrell's Penguin makes a power play to grab the reigns of the crime world in this new Gotham.

There is no official synopsis for the show yet, but Sarah Aubrey, Max head of originals, had this to say about the plot of the show in an interview with Variety:

"The goal of this is to show what Oz’s life is like and that’s very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can. As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It is a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It’s very much going to be about Gotham at that street level because he’s not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have."

Who's In the Cast of 'The Penguin'?

Headlining the project and portraying the titular character is Colin Farrell, coming on the heels of an amazing year. Apart from his stand-out transformative performance in The Batman, which made his iteration of the character an instant fan favorite and earned him rave reviews, Colin Farrell also starred in three other amazing movies in 2022, which include Kogonada's After Yang, Ron Howard's Thirteen lives and Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin. Farrell has also won the Golden Globes for his performance in The Banshees of Inisherin and is nominated for both the BAFTAS and Oscars this year.

Cristin Milioti, who's perhaps best known for her role in How I Met Your Mother, has also joined the cast as a regular alongside Colin Farrell. The Palm Springs star will be playing Sofia Falcone, the daughter of Carmine Falcone, who will be in direct conflict with the Penguin in the fight over the control of Gotham. The character of Sofia Falcone played a major role in Batman: The Long Halloween, a comic Matt Reeves has drawn heavily from for his first Batman movie, and while it's a different actress and likely a different take, we can expect a similar characterization for this wild card. Michael Kelly (House of Cards), Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse), and Deirdre O’Connell (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) were announced to be part of the cast in February 2023 and, in the latest casting news, Clancy Brown, who has also appeared in Marvel's Daredevil and The Punisher series, was announced to be part of the cast.

Who's Making 'The Penguin'?

Matt Reeves will be executive producing the series for Max, along with his production partner Dylan Clark, who also produced The Batman. Farrell also assured fans that:

“Matt Reeves is all over it. And sure Matt is borderline OCD when it comes to his focus and trying to do something new and original and with feeling and aesthetic and all that good stuff.”

Lauren LeFranc will serve as the showrunner for the show, and Colin Farrell confirmed in an interview recently that the Agents of S.H.I.EL.D. and Chuck writer will be writing all the episodes of the series. Craig Zobel, the director behind the Emmy-winning Mare Of Easttown series with Kate Winslet, will be directing the first two episodes of The Penguin. Michael Marino, who has been nominated for an Academy Award for his extraordinary work with hair and make-up in The Batman, will return to do the make-up for Colin Farrell in this series.