Colin Farrell may have delivered a remarkable performance as Oz Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin, in The Batman, but the experience of reprising the character for The Penguin series has left the actor questioning whether he wants to do it again.
Speaking with Total Film magazine, Farrell revealed the physical and emotional toll of portraying the Gotham villain in a multi-episode series, even admitting that by the end of filming, he was desperate for it to be over.
“I don’t know, man. Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit,” Farrell admitted. “By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I fucking wanted it to be finished.” Farrell referred to his mindset as “grumpy gratitude,” balancing his frustration with the transformation process with an appreciation for being part of the Penguin’s cinematic legacy.
Farrell is no stranger to the Penguin role, having first portrayed the character in The Batman (2022). However, he explained that suiting up for the series was a different challenge.
“It’s not like I didn’t know who I was, and I was going out and burning cars and shit, but… if you take what Matt Reeves created and then what Lauren [LeFranc, showrunner] did and what Mike [Marino, prosthetics and make-up designer] did and put them all together, it was a really powerful experience,” Farrell said.
Suiting up as the Penguin for a second time was so tough for the actor that it left Farrell on the fence over whether he would return for a second season.
“Lauren said, ‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense, would you talk about it?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And maybe in a year I would. But when I finished, I was like, ‘I never want to put that fucking suit and that fucking head on again,'” Farrell added.
Despite his reservations about returning for another season, Farrell is confirmed to reprise the role of Penguin in The Batman 2, which is set to begin filming in 2024. Matt Reeves, director of The Batman, confirmed that the Penguin’s storyline in the series will tie directly into the sequel.
“Colin [Farrell] will be part of the movie,” Reeves recently told SFX magazine for its October 2024 issue. “There are details that actually connect right into the way the next movie begins, and the way that Oz enters that world as we hand the baton back to Batman, and Batman is on another case.”
The Penguin, an eight-episode HBO Original limited series from Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios, will debut on September 19, 2024 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.
