Matt ReevesThe Batman not only gave us a new iteration of the Dark Knight but also a slew of characters that need to be explored further. One among them getting that treatment is Collin Farrell's Oscar Cobblepot aka the Penguin, whose story will continue on HBO Max with his stand-alone series, The Penguin. In the 2022 movie, he was still not the crime kingpin of Gotha,m but Falcone's chief lieutenant who operates the Iceberg Lounge. But after Falcone’s death, a power vacuum has been created for him to rise, which will be explored in the upcoming series. In a recent chat with Variety, Farrell revealed that he starts filming the series in February as well as revealing the inspiration behind exploring the character further.

When Ferrell’s casting as Penguin was announced, fans had their doubts and rightly so. He’s by no measure short, bald or fat – as the iconic villain is. But all doubts were put to rest when the first look was revealed, and Ferrell had transformed into the character, further cementing Reeves’ vision with his unhinged performance. The actor revealed that going into the movie he had no idea that a spin-off was possible. "The only thing I had an idea was that I wasn't nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to," the actor said.

He further added, "There was all this extraordinary work done by [prosthetics artist Mike Moreno] and Mike Fontaine, his team... I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six of seven scenes that we did in the film." Ferrell admitted that he was grateful for those scenes but “wanted more" for the character. "I had a bit of a thought about it and I talked to [The Batman producer] Dylan Clark and [he] had a similar thought..." the actor explained. The actor gives real credit to Monroe and his prosthetic team for becoming the real motivation behind making the series saying,

"And it was really, honest to God, any thoughts I had about an extended series was to do with Mike Moreno's work. I just think there's so much you can do with it. Age it up, age it down. He's just such a genius, Mike. So it was his work that was just an inspiration, really."

Batman looking intently in The Batman (2022)
Image via Warner Bros.

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Currently, no release date is set for The Penguin series. You can check out our interview with Farrell below: