Matt Reeves Describes ‘The Penguin’ as ‘Mythic Shakespearean’ Tale

Before Matt Reeves and the team behind the upcoming HBO limited series “The Penguin” hit San Diego Comic-Con yesterday for their Hall H panel, which included a special video appearance from star Colin Farrell, they sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss why they chose to give this beloved Batman villain a solo story of his own.

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“ It’s a ‘Scarface’ story ,” lead writer and showrunner Lauren LeFranc said. “It’s a rise-to-power story of Oz before he really makes it to the top.”

Initially, Reeves and his producing partner Dylan Clark had planned on working with HBO and “Boardwalk Empire” creator Terrence Winter on a spinoff series either about Gotham City Police Department or Arkham Asylum.

“As we were writing the movie [‘The Batman’], I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do,” said Reeves. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”

As concepts started to bubble up, HBO execs began to steer the development. Speaking on the notes they got back, Reeves said, “They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters.'”

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Immediately, Reeves gravitated towards expanding on the story of Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin. Speaking to EW, he said, “What’s interesting is that, in the movie, the big red herring of the story is it seems like the person they’re looking for, that the Riddler’s pointing to must be the Penguin, some kind of informant. This movie creates a power vacuum, and because Penguin is so underestimated, people don’t really see who he is.”

In describing how they wanted the limited series to come across, Reeves said, “We wanted it to be, not in a grandiose way, but in a mythic Shakespearean way, this kind of great tale.”

At “The Penguin” Comic-Con Hall H panel, Reeves offered further details, sharing how much of the story was going to be featured in “The Batman Part II,” but the limited series allowed them to dig deeper into the character. Farrell will still be featured in the sequel as the Penguin, but the series will bridge his rise in power between the two films. Another fun tidbit revealed during the panel was how the makeup for the character was partly inspired by former film producer and convicted felon Harvey Weinstein.