So, in case you haven’t heard, Warner Bros and Discovery are rebranding the HBO Max streaming service as simply… Max. Not even all caps. Just “Max.” While this bold strategy is far from certain to pay off, they did announce a number of new titles and provided first looks at some already-in-production ones on Wednesday at their investor presentation. The crown jewel of those first looks was, by far, the brief teaser that Max dropped for Matt Reeves’ The Penguin, which continues the story of Colin Farrell’s heavily made-up crime boss after the events of The Batman. It’s a streaming series starring an amazing actor doing a fabulously goofy performance, and boy, does it look like the antithesis of shit like Gotham. How can one not be hyped?
Take a look:
In lieu of a proper synopsis — Max went with the tried-and-true “Academy Award nominee Colin Farrell is ‘The Penguin‘” — here’s a cool quote that the actor gave Variety earlier this year on a red carpet:
“I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more. We have to get into what made him the man he is. And also, it will pick up where this film finished off, I think. I think it’ll pick up a little short time after the last frame of this film. We’ll get to go on a little kind of left turn off to the world of Oz and how he’s beginning to kind of dream of filling a potential power vacuum that may exist.”
Punny! He’s certainly got that part of the character down. Anyhow, The Penguin will land on Max — it still feels weird to type that — at some point in 2024. They’re shooting in NYC, so be careful if you live there, you might accidentally wind up being an extra.