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The Batman director shares how Colin Farrell’s Penguin is inspired by The Godfather

Matt Reeves has been discussing how Colin Farrell's Penguin is inspired by Fredo from The Godfather

Fredo in The Godfather

More hints and teases about Matt Reeves’ The Batman starring Robert Pattinson are coming out, largely thanks to a new Empire special issue. Reeves has explained that he wants to push the caped crusader to “his emotional depths.”

One of the characters who has caused most of a stir is Colin Farrell’s Penguin, due to the fact that he is completely unrecognisable in the still images that we’ve seen so far. Reeves mentioned that influences on this iteration of the Penguin are a range of gangsters; from Tony Soprano, to Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday (certainly a good thing), to Fredo in The Godfather.

“There’s a touch of John Cazale as Fredo in The Godfather. He’s a mid-level mobster guy and he’s got a bit of showmanship to him, but you can see that he wants more and that he’s been underestimated. He’s ready to make his move.”

Fredo’s most famous moment in The Godfather trilogy is when his brother Michael Corleone kisses him, saying “I know it was you,” thereby signing his death warrant. This is unlikely to be a feature of The Batman, however.

Colin Farrell also discussed the influences; “[Matt Reeves] mentioned Fredo to me, because Fredo’s crippled by the insignificance that he lives within, in a family that is full of very strong, very bright, very capable, very violent men. Which is why he commits the act of betrayal that he does, because he’s weak, he’s kind of broken, and he’s in pain.”

Farrell is already thinking ahead to a potential sequel with Reeves; “There is a kind of fracture at the core of Oz [reminder that the Penguin’s real name is the glorious Oswald Cobblepot], which fuels his desire and his ambition to rise within this criminal cabal. Where that rise goes … I would love to get to explore that in the second film, if that was ever to happen.”

We already know that Farrell’s Penguin is getting a spin-off series, so there will be plenty of time for him to fully explore the character.

While we wait to see Matt Reeves’ iteration of the dark knight, find out how some of the other DC movie adaptations are going, including Black Adam and prepare by watching the Batman movies in order.