Colin Farrell stars in the new MAX show The Penguin, reprising his role as Oswald Cobblepot. The eight-episode series will follow the mobster’s schemes as the fallout of Matt Reeves’ The Batman continues to affect Gotham. The series will also set the scene for the next outing of Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne in Reeves’ direct sequel to his 2022 film.
The Penguin‘s Unrecognizable Star
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More Batman content will hit TVs this fall as The Penguin kicks off the season. Before the new MAX series, audiences first glimpsed Farrell’s iteration of Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin, in promotional material for Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022). Many were baffled when they rushed to the internet to confirm that the hefty and heavily scarred Gothamite was, indeed, played by notorious dreamboat Colin Farrell.
Farrell has often pushed against his original heartthrob status by electing to do more offbeat work. Those who watched his collaborations with director Yorgos Lanthimos in The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer have become familiar with the lengths Farrell will go to for a role. Nevertheless, the physical transformation required for The Penguin is startling.
The Transformation of Colin Farrell
IndieWire outlined the demands of the heavy prosthetics on both the actor and the makeup department. After nailing down a system – and a long period of collaboration between Ferrell and prosthetics makeup designer Mike Marino – Farrell and the artists would spend two and a half hours affixing the various components onto Farrell. To protect their work, an “igloo” of sorts had to be provided to ensure the integrity of the latex and the sanity of the actor. “I had a tent that had three industrial air conditioners that were outside the tent pumping air in,” Farrell reminisced.
To work with such a stellar metamorphosis, director Matt Reeves often had to consider the practicalities of prosthetics when choosing what to shoot in a day. For instance, when the plot required Cobblepot to expose more skin, as is the case in the first episode of The Penguin, the makeup process doubled to five hours.
Gotham Mob Drama
The Penguin is set between the events of The Batman and its upcoming sequel The Batman: Part Two. It follows Cobblepot as he tries to take control of the criminal underworld in the wake of Batman’s meddling in the first film. Reeves has confirmed that the bat-crazy vigilante will not appear in The Penguin, hoping that the story will instead remain focused on the criminal element.
“To explore the rogues’ gallery, they could never get the real estate we can do in a series,” he told Total Film ahead of the premiere, noting that Batman and The Riddler will only be mentioned to contextualize the skittish atmosphere of the delinquents in The Penguin.
Final Thoughts
Fans who enjoyed the mood and intrigue of Reeves’ The Batman will have an opportunity to bask in the ambience for eight episodes of television. Likewise, they can enjoy Farrell’s extended disappearing act as he masterfully embodies Cobblepot for the duration of the show.
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