‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ gives The Penguin a fun and feminine twist

The Penguin is inarguably one of Batman’s most infamous and iconic villains. Wildly different versions of him have appeared in The Batman, Gotham, Batman Returns, and even Harley Quinn, as well as the Arkham video games.

But Amazon Prime’s Batman: Caped Crusader puts a fresh twist on the villain. The series is a nostalgic return to form of the original Bruce Timm-created series, Batman: The Animated Series. The ’90s series set the tone for many a Batman fan. The show was stylized with a gothic twist on an ambiguous ’40s era that Caped Crusader has continued. New episodes dive deep into the hard-boiled detective tropes of the time as well as reimagining classic villains. One of these reimaginings happens in the first episode as Caped Crusader throws audiences into the fray with no warning.

Who is the female Penguin in Batman: Caped Crusader?

Batman: Caped Crusader gets right down to business in the opening episode. Gotham has been plagued by a series of explosions which leads the Dark Knight (Hamish Linklater) to conclude there is a gang war a-brewin’. He is the World’s Greatest Detective, so of course he’s not wrong.

Clues lead him to The Iceberg Lounge, which in this series, is a cabaret cruise liner, headlined by none other than Oswalda Cobblepot. And while a husky-voiced singer in this reality, little else is changed about the character. The Penguin is still a cut-throat villain willing to sacrifice her children to the icy waves surrounding Gotham. She also has designs on taking over crime in the city which your typical Batman villains are wont to do. Voiced by Minnie Driver, the actor spoke to Collider about her new character.

“The Penguin is iconic, and I think this about Batman, as well. I am the first female Penguin. The Penguin is an essence in the way that Batman is an essence, in the way Doctor Who is an essence. They constantly regenerate and are voiced and acted by lots of different people. What they’ve done is cast good, strong, interesting actors as the Batman franchise really always seems to do. I hope that that’s what the fans will engage with and love, that the essence of these characters is true, even if I am some mad cabaret-singing evil version of the Penguin.”

Caped Crusader molds many characters into different forms. Barbara Gordon and Lucius Fox are both lawyers while Harley Quinn gets a maniacal and dangerous twist. But at its core, the essence of the characters remains the same. The Penguin is still a diabolical criminal genius who is a threat to Gotham’s safety. Viewers can watch the alterations to these classic characters by streaming Batman: Caped Crusader on Amazon Prime Video.