Matt Reeves and producing partner Dylan Clark have plans to continue to expand what they have dubbed their "Batman Epic Crime Saga."
With the impending release of The Penguin, Reeves and Clark are beginning to discuss what to expect from the series, as well as what may come next. From the series itself, showrunner Lauren LeFranc tells Entertainment Weekly, "It’s a Scarface story. It’s a rise-to-power story of Oz before he really makes it to the top."
"We’re in Oz’s world," LeFranc continued. "We’re living in the underbelly of the city. Oz is a mover and a shaker. He can’t always be trusted. He’s very smart and very methodical, but he’s also extremely impulsive. You can’t predict what he’s going to do."
As to why they even wanted to do this series, Reeves recalled his thought process at the time saying, "As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, 'Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do. It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros."
He went on to add, "[HBO executives] were like, 'We like what you're doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters.' What's interesting is that, in the movie, the big red herring of the story is it seems like the person they're looking for, that the Riddler's pointing to must be the Penguin, some kind of informant. This movie creates a power vacuum, and because Penguin is so underestimated, people don't really see who he is."
As for if Batman will show up in the series, LeFranc would only say, "We are the bridge between the two films," referring to The Batman and The Batman Part II, "We’re going almost directly into the second film Matt has planned."
And where do things go from there? "There’s another television exploration we’re going to do," said Clark. "We’re looking at this entire world as it relates to who Batman is — the antagonists around them, all the crime that has to be navigated in the city — and trying to figure out where are the areas that are best to explore."
The Penguin will debut on HBO in September.
