Colin Farrell Says “The Penguin” Will Begin A Week After “The Batman” Ending

While Colin Farrell is on a publicity tour for the critically acclaimed The Banshees of Inisherin, which finds him re-teaming with his In Bruges director Martin McDonagh and co-star Brendan Gleeson, he’s offered up some delicious details about HBO Max’s The Penguin. The upcoming series will find Farrell reprising his role from Matt Reeves’ The Batman and is set to start filming in early 2023. Farrell told Extra that the series will pick up almost immediately after The Batman‘s ending, a mere week after the Riddler tried drowning Gotham City.

“It starts about a week after The Batman ends,” Farrell told Extra. “So, Gotham is still, somewhat, underwater. I read the first script of the first episode, and it opens up on my feet splashing through the water in Falcone’s office. Even that alone, when I read it, I was like, ‘Oh, Jesus!’ It’s lovely. It’s so well-written. Lauren LeFranc has done such an extraordinary job, and she’s writing the whole thing and show-running. She is formidable. It’s just an exciting prospect. I love that character. I was greedy with it. I felt like I didn’t have enough. I wanted to do it more and more and more.”

Speaking with Collider, Farrell had more to say about LeFranc’s writing.

“I read the first episode, which is just so tasty and so unusual as the character was on the page and what Matt Reeves kind of envisioned when he was thinking of this iteration of the bang-up of Oz. So yeah, it’ll be, I think six or eight hours. I’m supposed to read episodes two and three within the next week.”

We’re far too early in the process to know much more about The Penguin, but these early details are promising. Given the success of The Batman and the fact that a sequel has already been okayed, one can cautiously hope that The Penguin will get a chance to make a splash on HBO Max.

For more on The Penguin and The Batman, check out these stories:

Colin Farrell’s “The Penguin” HBO Max Series Reveals Fresh Details

“The Batman” Cinematographer Greig Fraser on Finding Light in the Darkness

Colin Farrell Went to Starbucks as the Penguin Unnoticed (And Ordered This…)

Collin Farrell Spent 4 Hours Becoming The Penguin in “The Batman”

Featured image: Caption: COLIN FARRELL as Oswald Cobblepot/the Penguin in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE BATMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/™ & © DC Comics