HBO‘s The Penguin is adding another cast member to its flock as Theo Rossi (Marvel’s Luke Cage, Sons of Anarchy) joins the upcoming Batman series. Rossi plays a key recurring role in the Warner Bros Television and DC Studios project, headlined by Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot, or the Penguin. The eight-episode drama continues Penguin’s rise as one of Gotham’s most notorious criminals, from the chilling dancefloors of the Iceberg Lounge to the darkest corners of Gotham City’s underworld.
Cristin Milioti plays Sofia Falcone, a prolific crime boss who succeeded in taking Oswald’s empire apart piece by piece. Clancy Brown plays Salvatore Maroni, a powerful mob boss in Gotham City who disfigured Harvey Dent, prompting his transformation into Two-Face. The character has appeared several times in various Batman-related projects, most notably by Eric Roberts in The Dark Knight and David Zayas in Gotham. Rhenzy Feliz also stars, though, like Rossi, we need to find out the nature of his role.
HBO Max’s Sarah Aubrey has previously said that the series events will pick up immediately after the end of The Batman as it shows Cobblepot’s. “The goal of this is to show what Oz’s life is like, and that’s very much in the streets of Gotham, trying to get up and over as only the Penguin can,” Aubrey said. “As a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions. It is a great example of having the time over eight episodes to tell a longer-arc character story with a lot of delicious twists and turns and new characters. It’s very much going to be about Gotham at that street level because he’s not flying around like Batman does. We are all embracing that as a very specific experience for audiences to have.”
Speaking with Extra TV last year, Farrell shared the opening moments of the first episode of DC’s The Penguin series, saying, “The Batman ends, so Gotham is still somewhat underwater… I read the first script for the first episode, and just, it opens up with my feet splashing through the water in Falcone’s office, which even just that alone when I read it, I was like, ‘Oh Jesus, it’s lovely.’” Farrell adds that the role is so juicy he feels greedy to want to keep portraying him. “I felt like I didn’t have enough. I wanted to do it more and more and more, so now I get the chance.”
The Batman mastermind Matt Reeves will executive produce The Penguin series alongside Dylan Clark, Farrell, Craig Zobel, and Lauren LeFranc, who also acts as showrunner. Zobel is also getting behind the camera to direct the first two episodes.
Who do you think Rossi will play in The Penguin series? Feel free to post your predictions below.