The Batman director Matt Reeves opens up on the future of the franchise and how The Penguin is a natural extension of it.
‘The Batman’ Will be a Trilogy
In an interview with Collider, Reeves revealed that he has always envisioned The Batman as a trilogy of movies. Despite the fact that certain elements have changed, Reeve confirmed that there should be at least three films.
“Yes, that is still the plan. I mean, it’s sticking very closely to the path we envisioned… Things kind of shifted. So, when we came up with the idea to do The Penguin , that was something where I had always intended to continue Penguin’s story, and wanted to tell this story of his beginning of rise to power. Because we know that he’s introduced in The Batman as a kind of mid-level, sort of overlooked, mocked figure, who’s not yet in anyone’s eyes the kingpin we come to know him as in the lore. And so, that was deliberate because I wanted— whereas it wasn’t Batman’s origin story, I wanted the origin stories of these other characters, of the Rogues Gallery and that story was originally going to be the entrée into the next movie.”
‘The Penguin’ is a Natural Side Story
Reeves was also particularly excited with how The Penguin came into existence. Reeves created the new series depicting Oz Cobblepot’s rise to power after HBO Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys approached him.
“One of the things that Casey said was ‘God you know I’m really excited about what you’re doing in the movies too, we’d love you to do something in the series that’s like one of these marquee characters, don’t horde, don’t save everything just for the theatrical experience.’ And I said, ‘Well, let me tell you what I wanted to do as the next sort of leg of this story as an entrée into the next movie.’ I wanted to, basically in the wake of what’s happened at the end of the first movie, Carmine Falcone is dead, he’s had power for 20 years. And now, in the power vacuum, as Selina says to him, it’s going to get bloody. And this is the moment where Rob as Batman is narrating at the end of the movie, some people will seize the chance to grab anything they can. And that is Oz. It was kind of like imagining almost for that story an aspect kind of like a Scarface story, like a ganster story. And Casey was like, ‘That’s the series we want. That’s the series.'”
‘The Penguin’ Starts Where “The Batman’ Ended
It’s still the same kind of trajectory of story, but the entry point for where Oz is is now that he’s further along as we enter that story than he would have been if we had started that story in the movie instead of by doing a series. 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.”
