Colin Farrell underwent a dramatic transformation to become Oswald Cobblepot aka Penguin in The Batman and a newly released behind the scenes video shows exactly how the actor was changed from the much-idolized Farrell into his less appealing comic book character. Unlike the rest of the cast in The Batman, Farrell was completely unrecognizable when the first image of him as Penguin was released in 2020. As the movie arrived on HBO Max this week, it allowed fans to once again enjoy the performance, which there will be more of in future with Farrell getting his own spin-off series.
Footage of Farrell’s journey to becoming the Penguin was shared by Culture Crave, and in the clip the actor explains that it was “one of the most exciting, jubilant experiences” that he has ever had despite the whole process taking up to four hours at a time. Just like many stars who put themselves through hours of make up to become a completely different person on screen, it all helps put across a performance that has gained Farrell a lot of praise even though he is not on-screen for much of the movie.
The Batman arrived on HBO Max to a strong debut, making the future of this particular iteration of the comic book icon bright, in a gloomy kind of way. In addition to that, the movie will soon be released on Blu-ray with a lot of additional footage and behind the scenes videos including the transformation of Farrell and a longer look at Robert Pattinson’s camera test in costume. All of this continues to see Matt Reeves vision for the Dark Knight rise above all expectation.
Colin Farrell Could Become The Most Prolific Penguin In Batman History
The Penguin has been one of the most iconic villains of the Batman canon for decades and has been portrayed on screen a number of times, from Burgess Meredith in the 1960s TV series, through Danny DeVito’s sinister birdman in Batman Returns, to Robin Lord Taylor’s take on the character in the TV series Gotham. Colin Farrell now joins this group and is in the unique position to be playing the character across multiple platforms, following up The Batman with his own TV series.
The Batman’s Penguin is not the ice-blooded dark fantasy of Tim Burton’s nightmare vision, but is instead a criminal with big ambitions and a chance to gain the power over Gotham’s underworld that has sought for some time. Like everything in Matt Reeves’ Batman world, Penguin is grounded, gritty and very real, and we can probably expect something very similar in tone from the series. With The Batman having taken around $750 million at the box office, and attracting over 700,000 viewers in its first day on HBO Max, Warner Bros. will now be looking to the Penguin spin-off, and the Arkham Asylum spin-off, both pull in large audiences as they continue to build on this non-DCEU Batman franchise.
The Penguin series is in early production now, and is expected to land on HBO Max later next year at the earliest.