Sky has confirmed that Matt Reeves’ prestige spin-off series from his blockbuster Batman movie will air exclusively on Sky.
In The Batman (2022), Reeves reintroduced us to the titular superhero as a kind of super-sleuth (played by Robert Pattinson), while playing into the grim and gritty vibe of Gotham City to create a noirish thriller.
The movie also introduced us to Colin Farrell’s Oscar “Oz” Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, the aspiring criminal kingpin of Gotham City. In the movie he was still Carmine Falcone’s (John Turturro) chief lieutenant who operated the Iceberg Lounge nightclub.
But after Carmine’s death at the hands of Riddler (Paul Dano), there’s a power vacuum in Gotham’s underworld in the shape of the rising Penguin.
The series will follow this rise, which Farrell has teased to Collider as “incredibly violent.”
Among those battling “Oz” are Carmine’s offspring: his daughter Sofia, played by Cristin Milioti, and his son Alberto, played by Michael Zegen. Michael Kelly will star as Johnny Vitti, the underboss of the Falcone crime family, and Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, another mob boss whose activities ended with Gotham’s historic drug bust.
Rhenzy Feliz, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Deirdre O’Connell will also feature.
Farrell won many plaudits for disappearing into the role of “Oz” in The Batman. He perfected a gravelly New York mafioso dialect, and nailed the Penguin’s characteristic waddle. But Farrell told Rotten Tomatoes that he initially found his way into the character through the disfigured visage created by prosthetics designer Mike Moreno.
The transformation was so radical that when he first arrived on set, his co-star Pattinson failed to recognise him.
He has also since credited his inspiration for the upcoming series to Moreno, telling Variety that: “any thoughts I had about an extended series was to do with Mike Moreno’s work. I just think there’s so much you can do with it. Age it up, age it down.”
Amid rumours that Pattinson will make an appearance in The Penguin as Batman, Reeves has explained that the series will lead directly into The Batman’s sequel. Warner Bros. recently pushed back the release of The Batman Part II by a year, so the film is expected to arrive in cinemas in October 2026.
The Penguin will air later in 2024, with each of the eight episodes airing at the same time in the UK as the US every week, on Sky and streaming on NOW.
