The executive producer of The Penguin revealed recently that the spinoff's storyline was originally intended to be part of The Batman - Part II.
The new HBO series will focus on Oswald Cobb's rise in the criminal underworld of Gotham City following the events of The Batman. Colin Farrell is reprising the titular fan-favorite villain.
It is also set to bridge the gap between the two films as it sets up the seeds of what we can expect with the sequel with the final episode teasing the storyline for the next big-screen chapter of The Batman universe.
The Penguin's Storyline Was Originally Intended for The Batman Part II
In a recent interview, The Penguin executive producer Dylan Clark revealed that the new HBO show's storyline was originally intended for The Batman - Part II.
Oswald Cobb's rise in the criminal underworld was one of the planned storylines in the sequel. However, when the chairman of HBO approached Matt Reeves and his team for ideas on The Batman spinoff, they decided to turn it into a full-fledged series.
"The streaming-cable space was was a no-brainer for some of the bigger characters. Casey [Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content] was the first person that said, 'I need a marquee character,'" the producer shared.
"And Matt said, 'You know, I have this really good idea for Colin for the second movie.' And Casey said, 'I want that. You can't just have these characters be in the movie space.'"
Clark added, "It was a natural transition that way, and I think we have some great ideas to explore more characters from our movie space to do this same thing with Casey and Sarah [Aubrey, Max original programming chief]."
As we've seen with the reception of the series, we can safely say that turning Oswald Cobb's storyline into a spinoff project was worth it and they were able to expand The Batman universe in fruitful ways that make us see it in a different lens.
Despite that, Farrell is still expected to return in the sequel which will begin filming next year. It is interesting to see where the character will go by the end of the series and how he will be a major threat again to the Caped Crusader.
Are you happy to see Oswald Cobb's storyline turned into a spinoff series? Let us know in the comments!
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