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Pretty much from the second The Penguin premiered on HBO and Max, fans have been asking one question: where’s Batman? Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb was introduced in The Batman, after all, so why isn’t Robert Pattinson’s Batman in The Penguin? And with the season finale hitting this weekend (November 10), those calls for the Dark Knight to show up have grown even louder. So why isn’t Batman in The Penguin? A lot of reasons, including: he’s busy.
Okay, it’s not just because he’s busy. There are several reasons Battinson isn’t in The Penguin, despite the fact that gang warfare is running amok in Gotham City, and in the most recent episode (“Top Hat“) Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti) blew up a huge chunk of the street to try and kill Oswald. They include some textual reasons from The Batman, some greater themes of The Penguin, and the simple fact that showrunner Lauren LeFranc and producer Matt Reeves didn’t think it made sense.
So with that in mind, let’s break down all of the reasons Batman isn’t in this The Batman spinoff.
There are two specific moments I want to point out from 2022’s The Batman, as well as a general timeline of both the film and TV show to explain why Batman isn’t on screen in the latter.
To start, how about Batman’s opening monologue in the movie? If you’ll recall, there’s a cold open featuring The Riddler (Paul Dano) murdering the mayor of Gotham City. Then we cut to a montage of Halloween night as criminals and costumed folks stalk the streets in the rain, under narration from Bruce Wayne. Here’s the monologue in full, helpfully transcribed over on Reddit:
“Thursday, October 31st. The city streets are crowded for the holiday. Even with the rain. Hidden in the chaos is the element, waiting to strike like snakes. And I’m there too. Watching. 2 years of nights have turned me into a nocturnal animal. I must choose my targets carefully. It’s a big city. I can’t be everywhere. But they don’t know where I am. We have a signal now, for when I’m needed. When that light hits the sky, it’s not just a call- it’s a warning. To them. Fear is a tool. They think I’m hiding in the shadows. But I AM the shadows. I wish I could say I’m making a difference, but I don’t know. Murder, robberies, assault- 2 years later, they’re all up. And now this. This city’s eating itself. Maybe it can’t be saved, but i have to try. PUSH MYSELF. These nights all roll together in a rush, Behind the mask. Sometimes in the morning i have to force myself to remember everything that happened.”
The key phrase I want to emphasize here is this one: “It’s a big city. I can’t be everywhere.” That’s something The Penguin dives into in a big way in the first episode, as Oswald and his young ward Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) travel around the city while disposing of Alberto Falcone’s (Michael Zegen) body. Gotham City isn’t just Wayne Manor, the Mayor’s Office, the Courthouse, the Iceberg Lounge, and some dark alleyways… It’s multiple islands. There’s a whole suburban area. It’s hidden tunnels throughout the city, underneath Gotham. Batman is two years into his fight on crime, but he’s one guy. As he notes, he can’t be everywhere, and The Penguin drives that home by showing us how impossible it would be for him to stamp out all crime in Gotham as one man… Even if he is The Batman.
There’s another aspect of the movie that’s important to consider here, though. The whole arc of the film is that Batman realizes he doesn’t need to be Vengeance, he can be Hope. And when we leave him he’s out in the open, helping victims who have been hurt by The Riddler’s flood of Gotham City, on the roof of Gotham Square Garden.
I’ll go once again to Reddit for his closing monologue:
“Wednesday, November 6th. The city is under the water. The National Guard is coming. Martial law is in effect, but the criminal element never sleeps. Looting and lawlessness will be rampant… in the parts of the city, no one can get to. I can already see things will get worse… before they get better. And some will seize the chance to grab everything they can. I’m starting to see now I have had an effect here… But not the one I intended. Vengeance, won’t change the past. Mine… or anyone else’s. I have to become more. People need hope. To know someone’s out there for them. This city’s angry, scarred. Like me. Our scars can destroy us. Even after the physical wounds have healed. But if we can survive them… They can transform us. They can give us the power. To endure… And the strength to fight.”
Yes, he’s teasing there’s more fight to come. But when we leave Batman, he’s not stalking the streets beating criminals half to death… He’s helping people hurt by the flood. One would assume he doesn’t ditch that five seconds after the movie ends, it continues. Particularly as when The Penguin picks up, the city is still reeling from The Riddler’s attack. And that’s because it picks up one week later.
Look, we’re all used to Batman from the comics, movies, and TV shows being this all-knowing, all-seeing detective who can be everywhere at once. That’s not the Batman we’re seeing — at least not yet — in what’s called The Batman Epic Crime Saga. He’s two years in, and as of November 6, 2022, trying to bring hope to the people of Gotham City.
The Penguin picks up one week later, on November 13, with the murder of Alberto Falcone. By the time Sofia has blown up a huge chunk of Crown Point in the most recent episode, we’re only at December 4, 2022. That’s less than a month from the end of The Batman, and while it’s potentially enough time for Batman to act, a lot of this has happened under the radar. Things picked up significantly on November 21, 2024, when Sofia gassed the entire Falcone family, killing them all except Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) and Gia Viti (Kenzie Grey). But as far as the world at large is concerned, the Gotham PD and Chief Mackenzie Bock (Con O’Neill) are on it.
Could Batman be monitoring the situation from afar? For sure. But the Falcone family, the Maroni family, and every other crime family from The Triads to The LoBoys have thus far operated with impunity under Batman’s watch. Other than The Riddler, Batman has been concentrating on small, low-level criminals rather than taking down entire crime empires.
And I’ll emphasize again: he is likely out helping with flood relief, both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne, prominent Gotham City billionaire. To have Batman switch from Vengeance, to Hope, and back to Vengeance doesn’t make a lot of sense over the course of 28 days. He’s in Hope mode now — and I guess we’ll see where he ends up after this week’s finale.
That brings us nicely to the next point we should make.
Up until this point, Batman has mostly been an urban legend to scare low-level criminals. He is a total non-factor to the Falcones and Maronis and continues to be for the three weeks during which The Penguin takes place.
Sure, Oz has tussled with him and was scared and impressed enough by the Batmobile to get an Ozerati of his own. However, as we see in The Batman, Oz thinks Batman and Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) are kind of dumb: they conjugate their Spanish incorrectly, and he makes fun of them. And furthermore, as we’ve seen on The Penguin, nothing is a problem for Oz… He improvises, rolls with the punches, and firmly believes he’ll get the upper hand in any situation.
This is also an essential truth of Gotham City villains. If they really, truly considered Batman a threat, they would stop. And they don’t. That’s particularly true here in this TV show set during Batman: Year Two. He’s just not something they consider when they’re committing crimes. If the Gotham City PD isn’t an issue, why would some freak in a bat suit be a problem? Batman is not someone on their radar, and to have him show up would overplay his current importance to the world of the show.
While those are all textual reasons for the lack of Batman on The Penguin, there are more thematic reasons for the Dark Knight being off-screen in the series. In an interview with SFX, showrunner Lauren LeFranc explained her take on why it wouldn’t make sense to include Pattinson in the series.
“To me I think it packs a different punch,” LeFranc said. “Matt’s films are through the lens of the Batman, so you’re high up, looking down on the city. It’s a different perspective. With Oz, you’re in the city streets, you’re in the grit and the muck and the grime. He’s looking up, wanting to claw his way to the top. So it’s a different experience. I think Gotham is an interesting enough city that it deserves to have more doors unlocked within it, and for us to walk through those and see what we think.”
Reeves agreed with LeFranc’s assessment, adding, “I don’t feel like it’s missing something fundamental. I feel like it’s an extension of what is fundamentally there. We know this is the world of Batman. You’re going down a different alley. So the spectre of Batman is there. The spectre of the Riddler is there. The spectre of everything that happens in the last movie is there. It informs it. And it’s exactly where we begin.”
These interviews were posted pre-season, and have certainly panned out over the course of the first seven episodes. The Riddler’s attack is fundamental to Victor’s origin story, and the current status of Gotham City. Heck, his followers are still handing out QR codes to his website.
And furthermore, the lack of Batman hasn’t hurt the show in any way. Instead, we’ve had the opportunity to explore fantastic characters like Oz, Sofia, and Victor. We’ve explored side characters, places in Gotham we’ve never seen before, and the twisted relationship between Oz and his mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell). It’s been a thrilling season that wouldn’t be improved by — as I saw someone joke online, but cannot find the post at the moment — Batman suplexing Penguin through a table.
Don’t worry, Batman will be back in The Batman Part II — and every week in multiple comic books from DC Comics. Nothing is gained by adding Batman to The Penguin, as much as we love him. But don’t worry: he’s coming for Oz… Eventually. Just not on HBO or Max.
The first episode of The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19 at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max. There will be an encore airing on Sunday, September 22 at 9 pm ET, and then the show will move to its regular time slot of Sundays at 9 pm ET starting on September 29.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Penguin, with premiere dates:
Thursday, September 19, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 1: “After Hours”
Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 2: “Inside Man”
Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 3: “Bliss”
Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 4: “Cent’Anni”
Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 5: “Homecoming”
Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 6: “Gold Summit”
Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 7: “Top Hat”
Sunday, November 10, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 8: “A Great or Little Thing”
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“]] Wondering why Batman isn’t in The Penguin series on HBO and Max? There are a few good reasons, including: he’s busy elsewhere. Read More