So Collin Farrell has been cast as the penguin in Matt Reeves upcoming 2021 Batman film. This is a far departure from the last major penguin that we’ve seen on the silver screen that being Danny DeVito in 1992’s Batman returns. As a reference Danny DeVito is about 4 foot 10, bald, fat and not great to look at, whereas Colin Farrell throughout the majority of his career has been a tall good-looking leading man so how exactly is the traditionally grotesque character of penguin going to be portrayed.

 This also brings into question yet again what is this Batman film going to look like? This has been a very eclectic casting process with Robert Pattinson being Batman, Zoe Kravitz being Catwoman and now has Colin Farrell probably the most well-known of the three being cast as the penguin. Will they take the traditional approach that marvel has been banking on for over a decade or will they take the critically and commercially successful route that one of their recent projects has seen in 2019s joker.

If you listened to my thoughts on the Joker on the podcast then you know that I was not a big fan in that I didn’t think that it was a bad movie but I did think that it primarily used the joker name and slight references to Gotham as a cash grab. Realistically this was an indie movie about mental illness and didn’t have anything to do with the DC universe. The Batman universe was simply used as a cultural reference point to get people to watch a more serious film they otherwise would not have.

All in all I don’t hate this casting but then again I don’t love it either but then again I don’t know what to make of this new Batman. What it’s going to look like, what the tone is going to be, who the main audience this is really for, I really have no concrete answers to any of these questions.  And with most DC films falling short of my expectations since the release of the dark knight in 2008 I can’t say I have much hope left, but I can say my expectations have been lowered so much if I walk out of the theater fairly entertained I would call that a win for DC.