There are certain traits that are heavily associated with some characters, to the point that they become almost expected. When it comes to Colin Farrell’s depiction of Penguin in The Batman though, one thing that we won’t be seeing is his trademark cigar. While almost every iteration of the classic Batman villain, from his comic book origins, through Burgess Meredith’s TV take, to Danny DeVito’s Batman Returns appearance, Oswald Cobblepot has always come equipped with a cigarette or cigar holder. In The Batman though, Farrell was not allowed to have even an unlit cigar on set, despite him trying hard to get Warner Bros. to allow it.
Previously, one of the only on-screen versions of the Penguin to not constantly have his smoking aid was Robin Lord Taylor’s Oswald in the Fox TV series Gotham, so it is not completely unheard of. However, Farrell recently talked about his portrayal of the character with Jake’s Takes, and although Warner Bros. wouldn’t give in to his requests around cigars, that is not the only thing different about his first appearance of the character. Discussing how the character can evolve, Farrell said:
“I fought valiantly for a cigar, I even said at one stage 'can I have it unlit' and they were like no. The Oz that we meet hasn’t embodied the energy of the Penguin that we recognize from the source comics and from previous films, so I’ll see if it goes again. I’d love to explore it because he’s not an underboss, he’s not a boss, he’s just a soldier of Falcone at this stage. But he has great ambition and dreams of doing big big things”.
The Batman Gives The Penguin a New Start, But Where Will He Go In His Own Spinoff Show?
Although the TV series Gotham flipped the birdman on his head compared to previous interpretations, giving him an origin as a mean little dogsbody and a petty criminal with big aspirations, Matt Reeves looks like he is going to do it all over again in The Batman. Colin Farrell has made it clear in previous interviews that he is not a main feature of the movie, having a limited time on-screen, but with the character having his own spin-off series coming to HBO Max in the near future it will set up exactly where the villain sits in the hierarchy of Gotham’s underworld.
The Batman will see the Penguin being well down the ranks in terms of Batman’s adversaries in the movie, with John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone calling many of the shots for now. Where Penguin is at the end of the movie is something that will not be known until the movie arrives in cinemas in a couple of weeks, but there is a lot of scope for the character to develop further when his series comes around. Whether we will get to see him brandishing his iconic cigarette-holder the next time he appears on-screen or not, it is clear that Farrell is more than happy to make this version of Oswald Cobblepot his own.