The Penguin finally premieres on Max in exactly one week, on September 19. We’re now learning more and more about the process of shooting the long-anticipated series, and it appears that Colin Farrell didn’t have a super great time under all the prosthetics and makeup.
As part of Total Film’s new issue, the actor explained the highs and lows of returning to Gotham as Oswald Cobblepot, and while he praises the character that’s been created by Matt Reeves and showrunner Lauren LeFranc, he also was happy to leave him behind.
“Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f**king wanted it to be finished,” he openly admitted before describing his personal attachment to previous iterations of the character. “It’s not like I didn’t know who I was and I was going out and burning cars and s**t, 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.”
By “a really powerful experience,” he not only refers to the endurance exercise of wearing all the prosthetics and make-up needed to bring The Penguin to life on top of him, but also to how raw and savage the actual writing (and shooting some scenes) was. He didn’t close the door on doing a second season though: “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 f**king suit and that f**king head on again.'”
Regardless of whether Farrell is up for The Penguin season 2 or not (we’ve yet to see how it’s received by critics and Max subscribers), Matt Reeves confirmed a while back the show ties directly into The Batman 2, so we’re fully expecting to see him return in that movie, probably in a role that’s much closer to the ‘classic’ Penguin from the comic books. The original movie was also an origin story of sorts for him, and his spinoff series is all about a power grab, so predicting where his character is going isn’t exactly hard. What’s interesting about The Penguin’s premise is exploring the person behind the mob boss facade and learning about what he’s willing to do and sacrifice to achieve his goals.
While Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe might get a bit zanier as the stories evolve, the filmmaker has shot down the possibility of stepping into Gotham City’s more fantastical side, so set your expectations accordingly. Currently, The Batman: Part II is expected to begin production early next year.