"Exactly the way that Oz looks": When Matt Reeves shared the story behind Colin Farrell's iconic The Penguin transformation

Irish actor Colin Farrell made his debut as The Penguin in 2022's The Batman. One of the shocking aspects of ever since Colin Farrell's transformation for his role of Oswald "Oz" Cobb was that no one could recognize him. This is why it was surprising when Matt Reeves revealed his initial plans for the character's look in a September 2024 Deadline interview.

Reeves and the cast and crew of The Penguin, including showrunner Lauren LeFranc, sat down for the said interview. There, Matt Reeves discussed how the crew of The Batman came up with Oz's look for the movie and the 2024 HBO Max series, The Penguin. The filmmaker then revealed that the crew contemplated making Farrell look like John Cazale's The Godfather character Fredo. This is what Reeves told Deadline:

“We talked a lot about Fredo. We talked about John Cazale in The Godfather, and the idea of maybe trying to give him a penguin nose, or doing something to kind of mess up Colin’s face to get the sense of somebody who’d been overlooked, somebody who had this ambition inside of him but who was mocked and who had been looked down upon. All of a sudden one day [prosthetics designer] Mike Marino said, ‘Let me show you what I’ve been working on.’ Mike is an incredible artist, and he did this sculpture. I’m telling you, the sculpture was exactly the way that Oz looks right now. It’s incredible. And I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ We had never said, ‘Let’s just take Colin and turn him into something that we’ve never seen before.’ I said, ‘This is Colin Farrell. I got to now tell the studio he’s not going to look like Colin Farrell.”

Showrunner Lauren LeFranc also justified casting Colin Farrell as The Penguin:

After Matt Reeves revealed the initial idea to make Colin Farrell's Oz look like Fredo Corleone with some Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin's features, the HBO Max series's showrunner spoke about why someone as good-looking as Colin Farrell was ultimately chosen to play the brutal Gotham mob boss. Appreciating the actor, she said:

“Colin’s not talented because of his appearance. I’m sure that doesn’t hurt. But he’s such a soulful actor who can do comedy and drama, and so you still have that quality inside of Oz. I understand the question of why wouldn’t you just cast someone who you want to look like Oz. Obviously I’m quite biased, but after this experience and seeing what Colin can do, I realized Oz would be an inherently different character if he was not played by someone as talented and specific as Colin. He’s a really emotional, incredible actor, and Colin’s charm is really so much a part of Oz. I actually see Colin a lot through Oz now. I can’t speak for Colin in terms of what that feels like, but I do imagine it’s quite freeing for him in a way.”

What is The Penguin's future in the Matt Reeves Universe?

Oz finally ascends to the throne he coveted in the eighth and final episode of the HBO series. However, his moment of victory is underscored in the closing minutes of the episode as the Bat-Signal shines in the sky. This means that Farrell's Oz will most probably be a part of The Batman: Part II.

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The Colin Farrell-led eight-episode DC show is available to stream in its entirety on HBO Max.

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