‘I never want to put that suit and that head on again’: An Oscar nominee shares his dread over potentially reprising THAT DC character again

Kevin Conroy, Christian Bale, Robert Pattinson. Everyone has their favorite Batman.

Other characters from Detective Comics, however, have less representation. Before Colin Farrell donned the ambitious prosthetics, the only fame of reference live-action feature film fans had for Oswald Cobblepot was Danny DeVito. Tim Burton’s Batman Returns took the animal moniker a little too literally, and created a horror show of a villain.

Farrell’s The Penguin is a little more grounded. Debuting in Matt Reeves’ 2022 gritty detective noir, The Batman, Oz was a crime boss who not once bit into a wriggling fish. Instead, he was part of Carmine Falcone’s (John Turturro) crime syndicate, looking to move up in the world. In that, he got his wish.

At the end of The Batman, Falcone dies, leaving a power vacuum in the crime world of Gotham. Oz’s perspective is the entry-point for fans to see the character’s next steps in Max’s The Penguin. Set a week after the events of The Batman, Oz struggles to take control of the Falcone crime family, just as Carmine’s daughter comes back to town. Portrayed in the series by Cristin Milioti, Sofia is fresh from a stint in Arkham and will not go down without a fight. A crime series set in Gotham that fans have been waiting for, The Penguin will give a closer look at the world Reeves created. However, viewers shouldn’t get too comfortable with Farrell’s portrayal of the famous comic character.

The Penguin ruined Colin Farrell

In his feature film debut as The Penguin, Farrell melted into the role. No one would think that this was the Irish actor who became a cult favorite after In Bruges. The heavy prosthetics obscure Farrell’s natural face, while his accent is closer to a New York regional dialect. His performance was so perfect that of course, we may never see it again.

In an interview with Variety, Farrell pulled back the curtain for what viewers can expect of his future as the Batman villain. He told the outlet that as much as he appreciated the role and the chance to be in the world, it became draining by the end. He made previous remarks that he was happy to be done shooting The Penguin. The make-up was so rigorous that anyone would become fatigued. Even so, never say never. Farrell further explained that the showrunner approached him for more content, asking:

“‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense, would you talk about [Season 2]?’ 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*cking suit and that f*cking head on again.’”

While a season 2 of The Penguin is in doubt, fans can at least count on seeing one more iteration of Farrell’s portrayal. Reeves reported to SFX Magazine (via Deadline) that they are currently working on the script for The Batman: Part II with plans to shoot next year.

“Colin [Farrell] will be part of the movie. We’ve shared [the script] as we’ve been going along with DC and the studio and they’re super excited.”

This timeframe would give Farrell a slight break from the suit that he is looking for. That may mean fans won’t get a season 2 of The Penguin for some time, but there is more than enough to look forward to in Reeves’ follow up to his gritty Batman story.