The Penguin: HBO Max release date, trailer, confirmed cast, plot synopsis, and more news on The Batman spin-off

The Penguin is out now on Max/HBO (US), Sky/Now TV (UK), and Binge (Australia)

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• Out now on HBO and Max (US), Sky and Now TV (UK), and Binge (Australia)- Numerous trailers released- Story synopsis unveiled- Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oz Cobb fromThe Batman- Other cast members and roles confirmed in June- Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne/Batman not expected to cameo- Events will impact what happens inThe Batman Part 2- Farrell isn’t sure if he wants to play Oz Cobb again

The Penguinis out now.The Batman’s first TV spin-off has made its grand entrance, so you’ll want to catch up on what we know about the forthcomingMaxTV show before it debuts.

Unsurprisingly, the most important you’ll need to do is read ourreview ofThe Penguin, which will give you a taste of what’s to come from the next entry in The Batman Epic Crime Saga, aka the official name of Matt Reeves’Batmanuniverse. Once you’re done reading how excited we are for its arrival, there’s plenty more news and rumors to check out in the guide, including The Penguin’s release date in the US, UK, and Australia, its cast list, story details, and more.

Major spoilers followfor 2022’sThe Batmanmovie.Potential spoilersforThe Penguinare also on the way, so proceed with caution if you’re avoiding such details.

The Penguin latest news and coverage

The Penguin release date

Tear down the empire from the inside out. Academy Award nominee Colin Farrell is #ThePenguin in the new @HBO Original Limited Series, premiering September 19 @StreamOnMax.pic.twitter.com/QhbQ0cSvfWJuly 28, 2024

The Penguinwas released on Thursday, September 19 in the US, where it aired on cable network channel HBO as well as Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) super streamer called Max. UK and Australian viewers had to wait until Friday, September 20 to watch it, with the miniseries landing on Sky/Now TV and Binge respectively.

The show’s official launch was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con, with it being one ofnine huge Comic-Con 2024 announcements that filled us with excitement. Before that, we only knew thatThe Penguin’s release month would be September, which was revealed in mid-June.

What time is The Penguin episode 7 released?

The city will be his.Watch the new @HBO Original Limited Series #ThePenguin, premiering Thursday, September 19 at 9 pm ET on @StreamOnMax, and then Sundays at 9 pm ET starting September 29. pic.twitter.com/31WvtKSbWqSeptember 5, 2024

New episodes ofThe Penguinwill be released on Max and HBO at 6pm PT / 9pm ET on Sundays, and on Sky and Now TV at 2am BST, as well as 11am AEST on Binge, on Mondays.

For more details on when the rest of the show will arrive, here’s a full rundown of when they’ll do so, depending on where you live:

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The Penguin trailer

The Penguin’s final trailer was unveiled in late July. Just like its predecessors – you can watch them below – it showcases more ultraviolent shoot-outs, crime-based melodrama, and neo-noir sensibilities that have become a hallmark of The Batman Epic Crime Saga.

Missed the series' second trailer in June? Check it out below:

And ifThe Penguin’s first teaser, which revealed thatOz Cobb will be on the criminal warpath inThe Batman’s first TV spin-off, bypassed you in March, it’s also viewable below.

The Penguin cast: confirmed and rumored

Full spoilers follow forThe Batman.

Here’sThe Penguin’s confirmed cast so far:

Milioti, who some viewers might recognize as the titular mom fromHow I Met Your Mother, will be the series' primary villain – well, if you can call Farrell’s Cobb the “hero” of this piece. She’s the daughter of the deceased Carmine Falcone, so she’ll be battling Cobb for control of Gotham’s criminal underworld. Judging by the second trailer, she’ll have to get her hands dirty in order to earn the respect of her fellow criminals within, and outside of, the Falcone family.

And she’ll do just that, too – the third trailer confirming she’s more than happy to let her violent side out (during a stint in Arkham Asylum, no less) when it’s called for. Hey, she isn’t nicknamed ‘The Hangman’ for nothing.

Zegen (Boardwalk Empire,The Marvelous Mrs Maisel) will play Sofia’s brother, Alberto, while Kelly (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) is set to portray Viti, the Falcone family’s underboss – essentially, Carmine’s second-in-command – who’s seen telling Cobb to remember where his allegiances lie (i.e. with the Falcone family) in the second trailer. Expect this duo, plus Cohen’s Luca Falcone, to help Sofia in her battle with Oz.

The titular character won’t engage in this conflict alone, however. O’Connell (Outer Range) will play Francis Cobb, aka Oz’s mother, who’ll continue to fuel his ambition to become Gotham’s new crime kingpin with her constant reminders that Oz promised to give her a better life. Feliz (Runaways) will play Victor, Oz’s main lackey who’ll help him carry out whatever nefarious plan he’s cooked up.

It’s also possible that Brown (Invincible,Gen V), who’ll portray Maroni, will team up with Cobb to bring down the Falcone family. PerDeadline, Maroni is a mob boss who was involved in a historic drug bust, in which Carmine Falcone was the Gotham City Police Department’s informant. Maroni, then, will surely still have an ax to grind with Sofia Falcone and her allies, meaning he could unite with Cobb to bring the former’s empire to its knees. Well, providing they get along, which the second trailer suggests they might not fully do. Aghdashloo’s Nadia could help as well if her husband allies himself with Oz.

As for actors who might be involved but haven’t been confirmed yet, it seems Mark Strong (Shazam!,1917) will appear, too. Responding to a fan question onInstagram, Strong’s personal trainer Giacomo Farci said he’d trained Strong for a role in the show. We await more details about his potential involvement from HBO.

One individual you shouldn’t expect to see, though, is the Caped Crusader himself. Chatting toSFX Magazine(via GamesRadar), showrunner Lauren LeFranc said: “I understand why people’s desire would be to have Batman, or to think that, unless Batman’s in a show or a film, it doesn’t have the same punch. To me I think it packs a different punch.”

Adding to that, Reeves also opined: “I don’t feel like it’s missing something fundamental. I feel like it’s an extension of what is fundamentally there. We know this is the world of Batman. You’re going down a different alley. So the spectre of Batman is there. The spectre of the Riddler is there. The spectre of everything that happens in the last movie is there. It informs it. And it’s exactly where we begin.”

Of course, this could be a diversion tactic to throw us off the scent over a possible Robert Pattinson cameo. Whether it is or not, we’ll find out soon enough if the Dark Knight comes out to play in Cobb’s standalone series.

The Penguin story speculation

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) hasn’t released a story brief yet. In press releases accompanying each trailer, the entertainment giant simply teased that “the eight-episode DC Studios drama series continues The Batman Epic Crime Saga that filmmaker Matt Reeves began with… and centers on the character played by Farrell in the film.”

There are some details – some minor, some major – that we know about, though. Speaking to TechRadar ahead ofThe Batman’s release,Farrell revealed  that the Max show’s runtimewill be “six to eight hours” worth of content. Elaborating on what we can expect from this new Batman production, Farrell also told us: “[I’m excited about] getting more into the character and just, as you say, maybe getting more into his origin and the Oz that we meet in the film.

“I only have six or seven scenes in the movie, so Oz is still kind of an unknown quantity to me as well. So, I’ve become very excited by the prospect of getting to learn what the parameters are, if indeed there are any for the character. I mean, he’s got a lovely kind of sense of humor. He’s kind of funny, but he’s kind of not, but he thinks he is. He’s definitely dangerous and has a kind of a certain psychopath to him. But he’s also a little bit broken inside, as many of us are, so it’ll be fun to explore all those aspects.”

Expanding on some non-spoiler-based elements, Farrell toldMovieZine: “It’s dark – that’s what I can tell you about it. It’s really dark and really heavy… it’s incredibly violent. It’s one man’s rise to what he’s always dreamed of inhabiting, which is a certain power or social status.”

Lastly on the non-spoiler front, LeFranc provided some clues about how The Penguin’s view of Gotham will differ to that of Batman’s, telling SFX Magazine: “Matt’s films are through the lens of the Batman, so you’re high up, looking down on the city. It’s a different perspective. With Oz, you’re in the city streets, you’re in the grit and the muck and the grime. He’s looking up, wanting to claw his way to the top, so it’s a different experience. I think Gotham is an interesting enough city that it deserves to have more doors unlocked within it, and for us to walk through those and see what we think.”

As far as spoilers go, you’ll want to read ourThe Batmanending explainedarticle to see what story strands it set up forThe Penguin. For those who want a brief rundown, though: based on the three trailers, and as we teased in our cast section, there’ll be a power vacuum in Gotham’s criminal underworld following Carmine Falcone’s death, so multiple factions should make plays for their share of the cash, drugs, and guns that are run through the city. There may also be the formation of some uneasy alliances if individuals like Oz need some financial or gun-toting backing in their bids to become Gotham’s new kingpin.

It sounds like everyone will be trying to take advantage of the wider chaos that engulfed Gotham inThe Batman’s finale. There are some clues about what went down in ourreview ofThe Batmanand the aforementioned ending explainer. But, to give you some extra story hints, Farrell toldVarietythatThe Penguinwill be set one week afterThe Batman, with Gotham still underwater following The Riddler’s explosive (and successful) plan to flood the city. Judging by the trailers, it seems Oz and Sofia will see each other as kindred spirits who, despite their clear rivalry, are both trying to prove that they mean business to the rest of the city’s major crime-based players.

Comparable though their ambitions are, Oz and Sofia will definitely be going head-to-head over the course of the show. We’d be amazed if the casualty list isn’t high and, truthfully, we only expect to see Oz live to fight another day by the time its finale arrives. Why? Well, because of his involvement inThe Batman Part 2. Speaking of which…

Will The Penguin tie into The Batman Part 2?

Yes. PerThe Wrap, Reeves confirmed Farrell will reprise his role as Oz Cobb inThe Batman Part 2. That reveal came days afterEntertainment Weekly(EW) reportedThe Penguinwill “bridge the gap” between 2022’sThe Batmanand its 2026 successor.

A sequel toThe Batmanwas announced in April 2022, just one month after the critically acclaimed film – see where it sits in ourbestBatmanmoviesguide – flew into theaters. ConsideringThe Penguinis part of The Batman Epic Crime Saga, which exists separate to the rest of James Gunn’s rebooted DC Cinematic Universe (DCU), it would be bizarre if the gritty TV series didn’t end up affecting the narrative of the forthcoming film, which wasdelayed out of its original October 2025 release dateto October 2026. Reeves has said filming is likely to start in early 2025 (perCollider).

Of course, if Cobb triumphs (and we don’t see why he won’t) in becoming Gotham’s new crime boss, he’ll be someone of even greater interest to Pattinson’s Caped Crusader and Jeremy Wright’s Commissioner Gordon. After all, Oz is already on their radar after they interrogated them inThe Batmanto get some keyintelon The Riddler. The pair may reluctantly enlist Cobb’s help again, then, if the next threat to Gotham’s safety becomes too big for them to handle – or, you know, if they need some dirt on the next criminal/supervillain who wants to bring the city and/or Bruce Wayne to their knees.

The Penguin season 2: will there be one?

We don’t know, mostly because Farrell isn’t sure if he can stomach playing Cobb again. Speaking to Total Film (viaGamesRadar), the Irish actor said: “I don’t know, man” when asked if he’d be up for another outing as the vindictive but cunning gangster.

“Don’t get me wrong – I loved it – but it got in on me a little bit,” he added. “By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f*****g wanted it to be finished. I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’ I was still grateful, and still honored – I grew up watching Burgess Meredith [who played the role in the ’60s TV series], and then Danny DeVito [in Tim Burton’s 1992 filmBatman 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…

“Lauren said ‘Look, if I could find a way that makes sense [to put on the prosthetics and suit again], 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 fg suit and that fg head on again.'”

We’ll have to wait, then, to see if Cobb returns inThe Batman Part 2and, depending on what happens in that film, if there’ll be a second season ofThe Penguin. The ball is very much in Farrell’s court.

For more DC-based coverage, find outhow to watch the DC movies in orderorhow to watch theBatmanmovies in order. Alternatively, learn about every DCU project in development via ourDCU Chapter Onehub, or get the lowdown onJames Gunn’sSupermanmovie, which is slated to arrive in July 2025.

As TechRadar’s senior entertainment reporter, Tom covers all of the latest movies, TV shows, and streaming service news that you need to know about. You’ll regularly find him writing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and many other topics of interest.

An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Tom also writes reviews, analytical articles, opinion pieces, and interview-led features on the biggest franchises, actors, directors and other industry leaders. You may see his quotes pop up in the odd official Marvel Studios video, too, such as thisMoon Knight TV spot.

Away from work, Tom can be found checking out the latest video games, immersing himself in his favorite sporting pastime of football, reading the many unread books on his shelf, staying fit at the gym, and petting every dog he comes across.

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