The Batman Part II Needs to Deliver On The Penguin’s Potential

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 5, 2024 14 Views 8 Min Read
The Batman Part II Needs to Deliver On The Penguin’s Potential



Key Takeaways

  • The Penguin established Oz Cobb as a formidable Batman villain with a rich backstory and motivations.
  • Colin Farrell is expected to reprise his role as Oz Cobb in The Batman Part 2.
  • The Batman 2 must not overlook the character development of Oz Cobb from The Penguin, as it would waste the villain’s potential.



The Penguin revealed the next chapter in Matt Reeves’ Batman universe earlier this year and set up Colin Farrell’s transformative character as the DC villain fans know him to be. With Farrell expected to reprise the role in some capacity in The Batman Part 2, the movie must ensure it doesn’t waste the character’s potential that The Penguin spent a whole season setting up.

The Batman, directed by Reeves, was released in 2022 and established a new version of the iconic Dark Knight, with Robert Pattinson behind the cowl. The movie also introduced several of Batman’s iconic villains, one of which was Oz Cobblepot, aka the Penguin, who at the time was just a mobster working under Carmine Falcone. Then, in a dedicated HBO series, Farrell’s character got time to shine as The Penguin explored the aftermath of the events of The Batman. The series saw Oz face off against rival crime bosses Sofia Falcone and Sal Maroni to fill the power vacuum left by Carmine’s death, ultimately leaving Oz victorious, but at great personal cost.


The Penguin Untapped

Related
The Penguin Sheds Light on an Untapped Gold Mine for Batman Games

Batman games have adapted a variety of storylines over the years, but HBO’s Penguin sheds light on a new type of Batman video game story.

The Penguin Set Oz Cobb Up As A Formidable Villain

The focus of The Penguin was to explore how Oz Cobb rose from a simple gangster who came from a low-level family to become one of Gotham’s most notorious villains. Throughout eight episodes, The Penguin achieved this, showing how Oz outsmarted, outmaneuvered, and sometimes outran his rivals. The Penguin’s greatest achievement was the way it allowed the audience into Oz’s psyche and spent time understanding the villain’s backstory and his motivations in a way that wouldn’t typically be possible in a feature film runtime. By the end of its run, The Penguin had firmly established Oz Cobb as a villain, but he earned a fair amount of sympathy from the audience as well.


How Involved is Colin Farrell in The Batman Part 2?

The Penguin was never intended to be more than a limited series, which means the next time fans can hope to see Colin Farrell back as Oz Cobb is in The Batman Part 2. It’s still not clear who the major villain of Reeve’s second Batman film will be, but it is expected that Farrell will play a part in the movie. After The Penguin’s finale, Farrell told The Hollywood Reporter he expected to have “five or six scenes” in The Batman Part 2. The only other thing known about The Batman sequel that might be relevant is that it will chronologically take place after The Penguin, likely in winter and possibly around the holiday season. This means the version of Oz Cobb seen in The Batman Part 2 will be the one last seen in The Penguin, who was no doubt powerful but also psychopathic with his delusion.


The Batman 2 Shouldn’t Waste One of Its Best Characters

The Batman 2 Penguin Oswald Cobblepot Colin Farrell

While it’s unclear who exactly the villain of The Batman 2 will be, the film mustn’t overlook the incredible villain that HBO just spent eight episodes expanding on. Farrell’s comments seem to suggest that he won’t have a major role in the film, but will still be part of it. Audiences are eager to see what some of the other DC villains look like in Reeves’ gritty The Batman universe, but it would be remiss of the sequel to not pay off the set-up of The Penguin and have him go toe-to-toe with Batman.


Hopefully, the scenes Farrell is in are enough to put the new and improved Oz Cobb to the test against Batman. In the initial film, Oz was easily overpowered by Batman, despite giving him an epic car chase, and was used mainly as a source of information in the Riddler’s game. However, these scenes and Farrell’s performance were enough to earn the character his own standalone series. In The Batman Part 2 it will be important for Oz to use his intelligence and the lessons he learned from The Penguin as a weapon in a way that challenges Batman, lest the series’ set-up of the villain go to waste.

In
The Batman Part 2
it will be important for Oz to use his intelligence and the lessons he learned from
The Penguin
as a weapon in a way that challenges Batman.

The Batman Sequel Should Pay Off Audience’s Investment in Oz Cobb

There’s also the fact that audiences became invested in Oz’s story throughout The Penguin, which means any future appearances by the character will bear more weight. That makes it even more vital for The Batman Part 2 not to squander Oz’s potential as a character, as audiences will be excited to see whatever the villain does next on-screen. The Penguin set Oz Cobb up as one of the most formidable villains in Reeve’s The Batman universe, and hopefully, the sequel will be able to use this to create an even more interesting dynamic on-screen.


The Penguin is streaming now on Max.

Source link