{"id":84583,"date":"2025-08-20T21:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84583\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T21:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:16:08","slug":"the-penguin-team-had-talks-about-bringing-in-robert-pattinsons-batman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/84583\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Penguin’ Team Had Talks About Bringing in Robert Pattinson’s Batman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost a year has passed since audiences were first exposed to HBO\u2019s The Penguin, and to call it a success would be an understatement<\/a>. The show didn\u2019t just find fans among critics and audiences alike;<\/a> everyone involved has been swimming in awards ever since, with its recent 24 Emmy nominations<\/a> being the latest. And yet, before its release, many were skeptical of the show. Why would we want to see this story? And did it make sense to do a Batman villain story<\/a> without Batman himself?<\/p>\n

To that last point, showrunner Lauren LeFranc and producer Matt Reeves were cautious, too. In a new interview, LeFranc reveals she and Reeves discussed the potential of bringing Batman, played by Robert Pattinson, on the show. \u201cMatt and I talked about it a lot,\u201d LeFranc told the Hollywood Reporter.<\/a> \u201cIt just didn\u2019t feel necessary. It felt like we\u2019d be wrenching him in just to say we had the Batman in our show, when in reality, I feel like my goal at least was always to create rich enough, compelling characters that you weren\u2019t desperate to see him, which I know is a tall order because so many people love Batman, and Rob Pattinson is so good as Batman. But, yes, we were doing something a little different. We\u2019re through the lens of Oz. We\u2019re on the streets. There\u2019s a gang war happening. We always would say, \u2018Batman\u2019s up high looking down on Gotham, and Oz is in the muck, wanting to get up there and to achieve a level of power.\u2019 So, yes, we talked about it, but honestly, we just didn\u2019t want to interfere with the story that we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, that is until the final shot of the season when Oz, having successfully taken over the underworld of Gotham, sees the Bat-symbol in the sky. Batman is still out there, and LeFranc admits the show was also always a direct bridge to The Batman Part II. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe intention of our first season always was, we\u2019re launching Oz into the second film,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so we couldn\u2019t air a second season until after Matt\u2019s movie comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t get too excited by that quote. LeFranc also says, \u201cThere\u2019s no current status update\u201d on the second season, and if it ever were to happen, it would have to be after Part II and something truly spectacular on its own. \u201cWe have to feel confident we can top ourselves, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s really important to Colin Farrell and me, especially,\u201d she said. \u201cOtherwise, we don\u2019t want to do something again if it\u2019s not going to be excellent. We were always meant to be a limited series. So, pivoting to a second season is just different\u2014it\u2019s not something we ever really talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basically, it was more likely that Robert Pattinson\u2019s Batman would appear on the show than that a second season might happen. At least they talked about Batman. You\u2019ll next see Farrell, and potentially more characters from the show, when The Batman Part II hits theaters in October 2027.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost a year has passed since audiences were first exposed to HBO\u2019s The Penguin, and to call it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9348,49,48,8091,75,50502,2014,337,50503,2020,50504],"class_list":{"0":"post-84583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-batman","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-dc-universe","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-lauren-lefranc","14":"tag-matt-reeves","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-robert-pattinson","17":"tag-the-batman-part-ii","18":"tag-the-penguin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}