Key Difference Between Colin Farrell’s ‘The Penguin’ vs Past Versions of the Villain Makes the HBO Show 10 Times Greater
- Colin Farrell has done a phenomenal job at bringing The Penguin to the screens.
- Farrell's Oz is different from the previous versions of the character is this one major way.
- Farrell made sure that his adaptation of the character was absolutely original.
If there is one thing that fans will never tire of, it’s watching their favorite villains and heroes come to life. Saying that Colin Farrell did an amazing job of bringing the DC villain, the Penguin to life would probably be an understatement considering how impressed fans are with his version of the character.
This year has been a treat for DC fans, who have received not one but two projects with DC villains as the lead characters. While Joker 2 has proved to be more of a disappointment than anything, The Penguin has compensated for all that disappointment and then some more. This is not the first time Oswald Cobb has been adapted for the screens, but there is one way in which this version is different from what the audience has seen in the past.
Colin Farrell’s The Penguin Is Unlike Any Other Version of the DC Villain in This One Regard
Out of the many enemies Batman has, Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobbs is undoubtedly one of the best ones. So much so that he is even a part of the Caped Crusader’s rogues gallery and it is no secret that only the most well-known and recurring villains make it to this list.
Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Oz made his first appearance in Detective Comics #58. Since then, there have been 3 live-action TV adaptations of the character so far. The first one of these was in 1966’s Batman, in which Burgess Meredith portrayed the character and the second one was Robin Lord Taylor’s portrayal of Oz in Gotham.
The third one is Colin Farrell‘s iteration of the character in this year’s The Penguin, directed by Lauren LeFranc. A major difference between this new version and the ones that we have seen before is that Farrell’s Oz does not kill people for fun. He means business. So, as long as no one stands in his way, he will not bother to kill them.
There have also been some video game adaptations of the character. The vilest of those is often considered to be the one that appeared in 2011’s Batman: Arkham City. Oz in this game was of the sort that killed for sport, but Farrell’s Oz is very unlike him because as ruthless as he is, he does not kill people for the sake of killing.
Colin Farrell Tried His Best to Not Be Influenced By Previous Versions of the Character
Danny DeVito’s portrayal of Oz in Batman Returns is among one of the beloved ones. While Farrell’s Oz might be similar to DeVito’s in some ways, some things set them apart. For instance, the hat is not there in this version. In addition to this, DeVito’s character also had a more grotesque and exaggerated appearance.
During a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, Farrell mentioned that he tried not to dwell on the past versions of the character so that nothing was foreshadowing his portrayal of the villain (via Screen Rant).
I was going to watch Gotham, but I thought, no, I better not… I’ve heard Robin Lord Taylor is brilliant. I don’t want to be taking ideas or trying to do something different consciously, so I haven’t seen it.
Farrell’s transformation into the character itself speaks for how hard he has worked on delivering an original adaptation. He also mentioned that he had watched Burgess Meredith and Danny DeVito’s versions.
The Penguin is available for streaming on HBO and Max.
