Matt Reeves Confirms How Much Time Passes in ‘The Penguin’ Season 1 [Exclusive]

The Penguin bows on Max in just a few days, but some viewers may still be walking into the debut episode with questions. While Colin Farrell’s (The Banshees of Inisherin) version of Oz Cobb aka Penguin was first introduced in Matt Reeves’s 2022 feature, The Batman, audiences may be wondering where in the timeline the spin-off lands. Thankfully, Collider’s Steve Weintraub dug up that detail and plenty of others when he sat down with the filmmaker for a conversation about all things The Batman and The Penguin.

When all is said and done, Reeves wants The Batman to be a trilogy, but sees plenty of room along the way for one-off shows like The Penguin to shed a light on the other characters who haunt Gotham City. Although some of the flow is up in the air, one thing is for sure, and that’s the director’s desire and plan to keep everything linear. What this means for The Penguin is that the next chapter will pick up very close in time after the credits rolled in The Batman, with Reeves revealing, “The story plays out over the next weeks that take you toward the end of the year. We don’t play Christmas or New Years, but we’re getting there.” If we were to put our speculator caps on, we’d wager that this means that the two major holiday events may play a big part in whatever is to come in The Batman: Part II.

What Will ‘The Penguin’ Be About?

For those who caught The Batman in theaters or streaming on Max, you’ll know that the movie picked up during the titular hero’s life as an adult, not playing into any of his origin story. Reeves and his co-scribe Peter Craig wanted to stay away from Bruce Wayne’s early days and instead focus on the incredibly gritty underbelly of Gotham City. The end of the movie sees John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone get whacked, which opens up space for another gangster to rise from the sewers and claim the city for their own. Enter one Mr. Oz Cobb, who audiences will watch take his throne at the top of the gangster pyramid during the show’s eight-episode first season.

Joining Farrell in the spin-off is a call sheet that includes Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother), Rhenzy Feliz (Marvel’s Runaways), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Michael Kelly (House of Cards), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Damsel), Deirdre O’Connell (The Boy Downstairs), Clancy Brown (Gen V) and more.

The Penguin shuffles on to Max on September 19. Stay tuned at Collider for Weintraub’s full conversation with Reeves.

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