Colin Farrell “had an amazing time” on “incredibly violent” Penguin series

You think The Joker is Gotham’s most dark and twisted guy? Well, The Penguin series is going to give him a run for his money, apparently, at least according to star Colin Farrell. Max’s television spin-off of Matt Reeves’ film The Batman premieres in the fall, so you have time to prepare for how messed up it’s going to be.

In a new interview with MovieZine, Farrell says they finished filming Penguin two weeks ago, and “It was a long and really wonderful experience.” However, he added, “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. But 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 death of Carmine Falcone at the end of the film leaves this vacuum in Gotham to be filled, and so there are various people that are grabbing for that power,” Farrell explained of where the series finds his character, Oswald Cobblepot. “This is Oswald’s journey trying to rise to the top through extraordinary obstacles, and it’s super dark. Lauren LaFranc wrote a really twisted eight hours of television,” he laughed.

Farrell is an executive producer on the series alongside showrunner LaFranc (Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Reeves, who did not write or direct but nonetheless very involved, Farrell said previously. “Matt’s up to his bollocks, you know, hovering over the keyboard and just planning the story because he’s just so meticulous. He’s so obsessive about what he does, but he’s all over The Penguin as well,” the actor said back in 2022. “I mean, he’s not gonna direct it but he’s all over the structure of the scripts and who’s gonna direct them. And so, it’s exciting.”

The Penguin, along with Reeves’ The Batman film series, has been designated as an “Elseworlds” story, meaning that they take place in an alternate universe to the main DCU that James Gunn and Peter Safran are creating. Reeves is, however, developing an Arkham Asylum series for the main DC Universe. Basically, you can expect a lot more dark and twisted out of DC in the future.