‘The Penguin’ Brings Crime-Ridden Trailer to Comic-Con

Few TV leads can say they endured more to get into character than Colin Farrell, the handsome leading man who endured 3 1/2 hours of makeup every day to transform into the unrecognizable Oz Cobb for The Penguin .

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Now the fruit of all those hours sitting in the makeup chair is about to bloom, with the show getting the closeup at San Diego Comic-Con during a prime Saturday spot. HBO used the event to launch a new trailer for the show, which bows Sept. 19 on HBO and Max and received huge applause after it played to the Comic-Con crowd. The series was initially set to be a Max original but moved under the HBO umbrella — meaning it will both run on the cable channel and stream on Max — as part of a branding and strategy shift .

The Penguin marks an expansion of the universe of Matt Reeves’ The Batman , the 2022 hit that starred Robert Pattinson and which introduced the world to Oz Cobb, the aspiring crime boss who rises to rule the Gotham underworld as The Penguin.

Farrell appeared virtually, with other panelists including Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (Victor Aguilar), executive producer Reeves, showrunner Lauren LeFranc, executive producer Dylan Clark and Mike Marino, who created the prosthetics for The Penguin.

Reeves revealed that while writing the three-hour The Batman , the script was so long that he even approached the former DC regime with the idea of turning it into a TV show. That wasn’t in the cards, as DC didn’t interact with HBO at that time. Later, Reeves wanted to explore the rise of Oz Cobb in the beginning of The Batman Part II , and ultimately corporate changes led to an HBO show suddenly being in the cards, and thus the birth of The Penguin.

Farrell noted that the character was unlocked for him the first time he saw a bust Marino created of the character.

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“I instantly had a sense of character, place, history, violence, pain. There was so much that was etched on the face of the character. It did me such a solid,” said the actor.

LeFranc recalled being among hte first people to see bits of The Batman as she was developing the show. It was the height of the pandemic, so she sat by herself with a mask at Warner Bros. watching parts from the movie. “I wanted to do justice to the world Matt created,” recalled the showrunner. “I thought Oz was this wild man – charming, problematic, interesting, weird, dark, soul I wanted to dig into.

It’s hard to believe, given how large he loomed in the movie, but Oz only had three scenes in the movie, as producer Clark pointed out. (A fourth was cut). But the executive producer knew Farrell wanted to do more with the character, and was pleased the TV show became an option.

As for the future, The Batman II is on the horizon for 2026. Reeves revealed The Penguin will be in the movie, which aims to shoot next year. It’s possible there could be more TV shows set in this universe. The Penguin hails from Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios, the new arm run by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Reeves’ 6th & Idaho Productions and Dylan Clark Productions are also behind the project, which also stars Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo) and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush).

Watch the trailer below.

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