Actress Minnie Driver, who will voice a gender-swapped Penguin in Prime Video’s Batman: Caped Crusader attempted to explain why the show gender-swapped iconic villain Penguin.
A photo from Batman: Caped Crusader (2024), Prime Video
Prime Video revealed that Penguin was gender-swapped during San Diego Comic-Con and posted to X, “Introducing Oswalda Cobblepot…but you can call her The Penguin. Batman: Caped Crusader arrives August 1.”
Prime Video on X
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The announcement was immediately met with derision as numerous people mocked the gender-swap by referencing South Park’s lampooning of Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm, Star Wars, and even Marvel by noting all they do is put a chick in it and make it lame and gay.
Prime Video hid many of these replies on X. One from Jacob Airey reads, “PUT A CHICK IN IT AND MAKE HER GAY AND LAME! Dang, they cast Minnie Driver and instead of using her talent for someone like Catwoman, Silver, Nocturna, we get this lame genderswap. What a waste of talent. Batman has a plethora of female villains. This was unnecessary.”
Jason Craig added, “Stop f***ing doing this bulls**t. There are plenty of good characters that women play in the Batman series and there is no reason to do this gender swap crap. I can guarantee I will not watch this show.”
Hidden replies to Prime Video’s gender-swap Penguin reveal
Phantasystar77 wrote, “How stunning and brave. Let me guess, she’s a lesbian too?”
Cab0218 posted, “No one wanted this wtf! Stop the DEI bullshit!”
Going the Disney route,” wrote Spartan04148034. “Let’s see how that works out for you. I’m sure this will help you recover from the $500M s**t show that is Rings of Power.”
Hidden replies to Prime Video’s gender-swap Penguin reveal
Driver attempted to address this criticism and justify the gender swap while speaking with Variety.
She said, “Here’s the thing: If it hadn’t been so beautifully imagined or reimagined, if it had somehow just been shoehorned in to tick some box of ‘Oh, we have to now have a fluidity around characters,’ That’s not it. The essence of the Penguin is the essence of the Penguin.”
She added, “She’s properly evil. She really does some terrible things, and I hope that she will be embraced as the villain that she always has been.”
Driver concluded, “The essence of this show is quintessentially Batman. Make no mistake, and the fact that the Penguin is a really terrifying woman speaks volumes about the imagination of Bruce [Timm] and the whole team.”
A photo from Batman: Caped Crusader (2024), Prime Video
Despite Driver’s claim that this gender swap is not a box tick, Executive Producer Bruce Timm made it abundantly clear about three years ago that the show would indeed be ticking boxes.
During a promotional video for the series at DC FanDome back in 2021, Timm stated, “The way we deal with the characters is going to be a quite bit more modern in terms of inclusivity, representation, things like that.”
In fact, the show is also changing Harley Quinn’s ethnicity. Instead of being a blue-eyed, blonde, white woman, Quinn is now Asian. Not only is Quinn Asian, but she won’t be associated with the Joker.
Voice actress Jamie Chung told Entertainment Weekly that many of the show’s characters have been reimagined. She said she loved that the show “reimagined these characters” and “flipped the switch a little bit.”
Chung confirmed Harley Quinn is not associated with the Joker telling the outlet she “doesn’t have an association” with Joker and that Harley Quinn “is her own person.”
A photo from Batman: Caped Crusader (2024), Prime Video
Timm previously informed Entertainment Weekly, “I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend.”
He added, “So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary.”
Chung confirmed this saying, “What I loved about this character was we flipped this around.” She added, “She’s very welcoming, she’s very bubbly as a psychiatrist.”
A photo from Batman: Caped Crusader (2024), Prime Video
The show also features a race-swapped Jim Gordon.
Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman: Caped Crusader (2024), Prime Video
What do you make of Driver’s comments regarding the gender-swapped Penguin in Batman: Caped Crusader?
