DC Universe growing at HBO Max

Batman spin-off series focused on the Penguin and various other DC related projects in the works at HBO Max. The streamer already has a slew of DC-related projects in the works, some with series orders and others in development including a spinoff of The Batman, and a J.J. Abrams-exec produced takes on Madame X and Constantine. It is now also working up a series involving classic Batman foe Penguin.

The project is in the early stages of development and is being exec produced by The Batman duo Dylan Clark and Matt Reeves. It comes from Reeves’ 6th and Idaho, Dylan Clark Productions, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. It’s described as a “Scarface-like” series about the rise of the Penguin character.

Colin Farrell as Penguin in The Batman - Warner Bros / Trailer

The Penguin, otherwise known as Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, is a dapper mob boss and one of Batman’s primary villains. The character has been played by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns and Robin Lord Taylor (photo) in Gotham. Colin Farrell is set to play him in The Batman, which is set to release in 2022. It is expected that Farrell will also portray the lead character in the The Penguin series.



The Penguin development project joins the Joe Barton-showrun series, which is also set in Gotham. HBO Max gave that project a series commitment to the project last summer. Reeves said last summer that this series is a prequel to his Batman Year Two movie, with the show set in Batman Year One when a “masked vigilante … starts to unsettle the city.” The series will zero in on the city’s corruption that “goes back many years” and is told from the POV of a crooked cop.

HBO Max declined to comment.