Colin Farrell in talks to play The Batman's handsome new Penguin, with Andy Serkis as Alfred

By Sam Barsanti | November 5, 2019 | 10:28pm

Aux Features Film

Colin Farrell in talks to play The Batman's handsome new Penguin, with Andy Serkis as Alfred

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain

According to Deadline, Colin Farrell is in talks to join the cast of Matt Reeves’ The Batman as stocky, bird-like nightclub owner/organized crime boss Oswald Cobblepot—a.k.a. The Penguin. This would be, let’s say, a divergence from traditional depictions of The Penguin, the most famous of which is Danny DeVito’s fish-eating, sewer-dwelling maniac from Batman Returns, so this might be something more akin to Robin Lord Taylor’s version from the show Gotham. In terms of Batman villains, Farrell will be joining Paul Dano’s Riddler and Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman in The Batman, with the three of them (or at least two of them, given Catwoman’s history with the Dark Knight) facing off against Robert Pattinson’s Batman.

In other The Batman news, The Hollywood Reporter says that Andy Serkis (who worked with Reeves on two of the recent Planet Of The Apes movies) will be joining the film as Batman’s loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth. He probably won’t be some kind of CG creation, as Serkis does occasionally play regular human characters, but making Alfred into some kind of Snoke-like digital-man would be an interesting take—this is the same movie that’s getting a handsome, Irish Penguin, after all. On the side of the angels, Serkis Alfred will be joining Jeffrey Wright’s Commissioner Gordon.