Lauren LeFranc, the showrunner of Max’s The Penguin series recently confirmed as well as explained why Robert Pattinson’s Batman will not show up in the series.
Colin Farrell as the Penguin in The Penguin (2024), Max
In an interview with CinemaBlend, LeFranc shared her reasoning, “It’s interesting, because Matt (Reeves) and I always talked about the fact that, in truth, his version of Gotham City is very grounded. Batman’s not everywhere. It’s a big city!”
She added, “And also, it has been established in the film that he doesn’t really pay much attention to Oz. He doesn’t think he’s really worth paying attention to, in that regard. And so, honestly, we didn’t really think in terms of this idea that Batman would be watching. We were just really more focused on following our characters on our show.”
Clacny Brown as Salvatore Maroni and Colin Farrell as the Penguin in The Penguin (2024), Max
This answer is complete and utter bogus as evidenced by the actual The Batman film wherein Pattinson’s Batman confronts the Skull Gang who was attempting to initiate one of their new members.
The new initiate sees Batman’s symbol in the night sky and then when this initiate is pressed to attack an innocent train commuter, Pattinson’s Batman walks out of the shadows and beats down the criminals.
The scene shows that Batman would be paying attention to Cobblepot because he cares about crime in Gotham City no matter how minor it might be.
He takes the time to save an innocent passenger and disperses the Skull Gang members despite the fact that there might be bigger crimes brewing in the city.
Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin (2024), Max
Furthermore, why would Batman not keep tabs on Penguin given Cobblepot was one of Falcone’s lieutenants and likely an inheritor to his operation.
This operation also has deep connections to Batman. His parents were likely murdered to prevent his father, Thomas, from turning himself and Falcone in for murdering a journalist connected to the Maroni family, who was writing an expose regarding Martha’s family history of mental illness.
Batman would definitely be keeping tabs on Penguin.
Colin Farrell as the Penguin in The Penguin (2024), Max
LeFranc should have just been honest about why Pattinson’s Batman is not in the show and it likely has a lot more to do with contractual obligations than the fact that Gotham City is so big, Batman can’t be everywhere, and he does not care about Cobblepot.
And if LeFranc and the folks at Max did not want to have Batman’s shadow lingering on The Penguin, they should have had him relocate out of Gotham into Blüdhaven, Hub City, or even create a brand new city or town.
Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin (2024), Max
The Penguin arrives on Max on Thursday, September 19th. The series stars Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as John Viti, Shoreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deidre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.
Colin Farrell as the Penguin in The Penguin (2024), Max
What do you make of LeFranc’s explanation for why Pattinson’s Batman is not showing up?
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