Colin Farrell has admitted that he wanted the forthcoming Penguin series to be over by the end of filming.
- READ MORE: ‘The Batman’ review: down in the dumps with Robert Pattinson’s dark knight
Starring Farrell as the supervillain, alongside How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Milioti and Runaways’ Rhenzy Feliz, the show is scheduled to debut in the US on HBO Max on September 19 and Sky Atlantic/NOW the following day (September 20). Also joining the cast are Clancy Brown, Michael Zegen, Michael Kelly and Mark Strong.
When asked about reprising his role for a second series, he told Total Film: “I don’t know, man. Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I fucking wanted it to be finished.”
He continued: “I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’ I was still grateful, and still honoured – I grew up watching Burgess Meredith [who played the role in the ’60s TV series], and then Danny DeVito [in Tim Burton’s 1992 film Batman Returns] was my Penguin – so being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged. But by the end of it…”
Farrell explained that he needed a break from the role and taking up it again for another series would be in part up to showrunner Lauren LeFranc.
He said: “Lauren said, ‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense, would you talk about it?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And maybe in a year I would. But when I finished I was like, ‘I never want to put that fucking suit and that fucking head on again.’”
Despite his reservations, Farrell will return as The Penguin in the forthcoming The Batman 2, according to director Matt Reeves who recently confirmed that the series will serve as an “entry point” to the second film.
The sequel was originally scheduled for an October 2025 release, but delays reportedly caused by last year’s SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes have meant that the movie won’t be hitting screens until October 2 2026, pushing its release back a whole year.
The Batman scored a four-star review from NME, with Alex Flood writing: “If there’s one criticism to be made, it’s that The Batman is too long. No film five minutes shy of three hours can avoid dragging occasionally, and there’s a lot of leads to chase down and clues to unravel in this case. Fortunately, the writers know to break up each exposition session with enough action. It’s all shot beautifully too, against a shadowy urban backdrop lit by sudden bursts of neon red and blue.”