Bitcoin is holding steady within a descending range, showing little directional conviction, while several altcoins are quietly building strength. As the market consolidates, these smaller assets could hint at early upside moves before BTC breaks out.
Key Resistance In Focus: $90,588 And The Descending Trendline
According to a recent update by Kamile Uray, there are no changes in the key levels being tracked on the daily chart, as the focus remains on the $90,588 level and the descending blue trendline. Unless BTC can close above these levels, the current decline may continue. Any upward moves below the blue descending trend are considered corrective rather than a trend reversal.
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The first support zone to monitor during the decline is between $83,822 and $82,477. A daily close below $82,477 would signal a continuation of the downtrend and could open the door toward the $74,496–$71,237 zone, marked by the blue box. This lower zone is viewed as a strong support area where buyers may step in.
Thus, a clear reversal confirmation is key before considering any significant upward move. Once confirmed, a rally toward the blue descending trendline could follow, testing resistance levels along the way.
For the uptrend to resume decisively, BTC would need to close above $90,588 and break the descending resistance. Meanwhile, a daily close above $94,130 would confirm that the blue descending trend has been broken, potentially signaling a shift to sustained bullish momentum.
LTF Moves Show Less Impulse, But Structure Holds
Crypto analyst The Penguin noted that the lower time frame (LTF) is showing slightly less impulsive action, though the overall count remains unchanged. The recent moves on the LTF appear more like noise and do not affect the broader wave count, and confidence in a leading diagonal for wave 1 remains intact.
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Putting Elliott Wave analysis aside for a moment and leaning on standard technical analysis, BTC is clearly respecting a defined range. As a result, a minor deviation toward the 0.886 level marked on the chart is being closely watched as a potential entry point.
Bullish confirmation will come if BTC manages to close and hold above $90,500, which would invalidate the current bearish scenario and signal the potential for a more sustained upward trend. Until then, the short-term fluctuations are considered normal noise, especially with the yearly open approaching.
On the altcoin side, momentum appears to be holding, suggesting potential upside. Outperformance is already visible in altcoins like XPL, indicating that while BTC consolidates, some alts are starting to push higher.
BTC trading at $87,481 on the 1D chart | Source: BTCUSDT on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
Greg Nicotero teases a Jason Voorhees-inspired zombie on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Na Hong-jin’s alien invasion movie gets a poster, and Matt Reeves teases new ground for Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight in The Batman, Part II. Spoilers, away!
Mobile Suit Gundam
The latest edition of Jeff Sneider’s newsletter, the InSneider, alleges that Legendary is eyeing singer Benson Boone to join the cast of its adaptation of the mecha anime legend, in an undisclosed role alongside the previously rumored Sydney Sweeney. It would mark Boone’s feature debut.
The Batman, Part II
Speaking with THR, Matt Reeves stated The Batman, Part II, is “so much a detective story” and does “things” for the character that have “never been done this way before.”
Because of what the first movie was and what [The Batman: Part 2] is, which is so much a detective story, the idea of trying to protect the secrets of the movie is super important because it’s a mystery. That would be an extra level of heartbreak if that part of it started getting out.
You wanna keep the surprise so the fans can have the fun experience that I always love going to the movies, which was to go and be surprised. He’s Batman, so if he [Robert Pattinson] doesn’t like it, not good. So, I was super excited because I thought that he really would [like it] because the things that it does for his character, for Batman, and for Bruce has never been done before in this way.
And I had a feeling he would respond in this way, the fact that he did was incredibly encouraging. And of course, I’m nervous every time anyone reads it because we put all this passion into it but you hope people connect to what you’re trying to do.
The Astronaut
Deadline reports Vertical has acquired the U.S. rights to The Astronaut, a sci-fi/thriller starring Kate Mara, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Luna, Ivana Milicevic, and singer-actress Macy Gray. The story concerns astronaut Sam Walker (Mara) as she’s “found miraculously alive in a punctured capsule floating deep off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. General William Harris (Fishburne) arranges for her to be placed under intense NASA surveillance in a high-security house for rehabilitation and medical testing. However, when disturbing occurrences begin happening around the property, she fears that something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth.”
Hatchet 5
According to Kane Hodder at Silver Scream Con, there’s a “decent chance” a fifth Hatchet movie will happen, as director Adam Green has an “amazing” idea for a new installment.
I think there’s a decent chance it happens, but nothing’s planned yet. All I know is that Adam has an idea, if it ever happens, of the setting, and I think it would be amazing if we did that. And it’s not space!
Three brothers “descend into a psychedelic hellscape” after building their own TARDIS in the trailer for She Loved Blossoms More.
The Penguin
Matt Reeves also confirmed “discussions” are underway for a potential second season of The Penguin.
We’re in discussions. [Showrunner] Lauren [Lefranc] is thinking hard and we’re talking, so we’ll see. We love the show, and we think our cast is so incredible. The work that Lauren and the writers did was incredible. Our passion was in it, but never in our wildest dreams could we imagine it would have been received in the way that it was.
According to Bloody-Disgusting, Greg Nicotero revealed the third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon will include a zombie inspired by Jason Voorhees at Silver Scream Con.
We all hoped that HBO’s The Penguin would be good but did anyone actually expect it to be this good? The people behind the scenes did and now, with the show enjoying success, it could mean just the beginning for Batman’s bad guys appearing on HBO.
“I can tell you this, we would love to be able to do more. But I can also say that we are already talking to HBO about [more],” executive producer Matt Reeves told the Wrap. “The opportunity of being able to then on HBO, go and explore characters that wouldn’t be able to have that kind of real estate creatively, as we were able to do with Oz [Cobb, Colin Farrell’s character], that is something that we are talking to HBO about. They’re very excited about that idea. That’s something that we really, really hope we’re going to be able to do.”
“We’ve got The Batman. We’ve got The Penguin. And who knows what’s next,” Reeves added.
What’s actually next is The Batman Part II which Reeves is prepping for a 2025 shoot and 2026 release. That film will continue the story of The Penguin much like The Penguin continued the story of The Batman and Reeves admits making sure it all fit was difficult.
“It’s this thing where you’re trying to organize it in such a way that the movie hands off to the show,” Reeves said. “We change point-of-view. We do something we can’t have any room really to do at this level in the movies, go on a long-form, deep-dive into Oz’s character, but then hand back off to the next movie and have him enter that story. There was a little bit of air traffic control to manage that, but all of it was to create the space then that would allow us to dig deeply into that character in the way that [showrunner] Lauren [LeFranc] did.”
All of which is to say, if a second Bat-villain show would happen, it seems like it would happen after The Batman Part II. That assumption makes speculation more difficult because, though we know for sure Penguin is in the film, and we assume Riddler (Paul Dano), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and Joker (Barry Keoghan) are in it too, Reeves is sure to introduce new villains as well. And Batman certainly has plenty of those to go around.
You have to imagine, though, if HBO is interested in exploring another Batman villain in long form, it would have to be one with name recognition. Since Penguin has his show and Riddler and Catwoman were explored in the first movie, who else is left? The company wouldn’t dare do a Joker show after what just happened with Joker: Folie à Deux would it? Is there anyone else big enough?
I’m sitting in the green room of StyleCaster’s studio on 5th Avenue, Manhattan, but there’s a tinge of desperation in Rhenzy Feliz’s voice, “Can we speak anywhere else?” he asks. You see, his mom, Joelis Vallejo is also his groomer, and when I say we’re here to talk about spoilers for The Penguin, he panics. “She doesn’t know what happens,” he says. It’s OK, she insists, she’ll put on headphones and listen to Karol G while we do the interview and she lays out her hairstyling tools. It takes a second more convincing, but he agrees.
Feliz has had a handful of acting roles before this one. His breakout role came in the young adult series Runaways for 33 episodes, but you get the strong feeling that HBO’s gritty mob drama—a spinoff of Matt Reeve’s The Batman—will push him into the big leagues. Colin Farrell, with whom Feliz spends the majority of his screentime, reprises his role as Oswald Cobb, a middle management mobster with ambitions for grandeur.
Feliz plays Victor Aguilar, a teenager from a low-income neighborhood in Gotham. In episode one, he and his friends try to steal the rims off the wrong guy’s purple—sorry, “technically it’s plum”—Maserati. Shots are fired, and Vic’s buddies flee, but Oz has him cornered. In exchange for his life, Vic offers to help Oz with whatever he needs, and his apprenticeship in the world of organized crime begins. “Oz loves this idea of being revered, being admired. He wants it,” observes Feliz, “and so I think he finds that in Vic. He likes having him around because of what it does to his ego.”
While there’s certainly a power imbalance between them, Oz and Vic share a few fundamental similarities. Both are from modest backgrounds and both are often underestimated because of their impediments. For Oz, it’s his limp; a symptom of a birth defect known as Club Foot. For Vic, it’s his stutter. Feliz worked extensively with fluency consultant, Marc Winski, who grew up with a stutter himself and is an advocate in the community, as a key part of Victor’s character development. “I would either make phone calls to delis in a stutter, or I would go to I would go to grocery stores and order stuff in a stutter. You can feel embarrassed and ashamed to speak because you feel like you’re taking up someone’s time,” he says. “The stutter had 75 to 80% of understanding who Victor was because it really shapes who you are as a human being.”
Photographer: George Chinsee. Designer: Stephanie Cui
What has struck so many viewers in the opening few episodes of The Penguinis how, unexpectedly, it’s made them laugh. Between Oz and his new protégé, some touching moments will also catch the viewer off-balance. One in particular from episode 3, which we spoke about in great detail, reduced Winski to tears.
I want to start off by asking you what elements of Vic’s character you can empathize with. I also didn’t grow up with much.
Where did you grow up? I spent five years up in the Bronx. When I was five, I moved out of the Bronx. We lived up in the projects on 183rd St. Then we moved to a housing community in Florida. Then when I was 15, we moved to LA, and that was when my mom met my stepdad, so they joined the family, and we moved out to LA, and that was when it started getting a little more middle-class, and it was decent. But until I was 15, I lived in not the greatest circumstances. And I think that growing up that way, I can understand why Victor might go down this path.
Oz loves this idea of being revered, being admired. He wants it. And so I think he finds that in Vic. He likes having him around because of what it does to his ego
Rhenzy Feliz
At the beginning of episode 3, Victor’s family is killed in a flood caused by the Riddler’s bombs. He and his girlfriend Graciela have nothing left. His home is destroyed. She offers him an out, to go to California. Why do you think he chooses not to leave with her? To not just get on that bus in episode three and leave with Graciela, money is a massive motivating factor. He hasn’t had a lot of agency or a lot of power in his life. He has been able to do much. He’s never been looked at like he’s able to accomplish much. I think that’s one of the things in episode one, where he goes, “I got ambition, and I’m not a waste.” I think at that moment in episode three he realizes, “This is my chance to get things I want things. I want to be someone, I want to be part of something.”
That’s what Oz sees in him too, right? Both of them want something more out of life. Do you think his affinity for Vic is genuine? That’s probably more of a question for Colin, but do I think it’s real? I think at the beginning, he does feel like he can help this kid, he’s like, “This kid needs me.” I think it’s an ego boost. I think he likes the fact that this kid is looking up to him and that he’s helping him.
I loved the scene in the French restaurant where Vic and Oz are having lunch. Vic’s ordering the steak frites but because of his stutter, he can’t quite get the “frites” out right away. The waiter interrupts and Oz tells the waiter off. Can you walk me through that scene? That scene is really nice because it takes some dips and valleys. I’m telling Oz a story, and then it becomes this whole, “Hey, stand up for yourself, take up space. Stop fucking cowering.” I remember Marc pulling me aside when he read the scene, and he said, “The scene is going to be really special for a lot of people.”
Once we shot it, he said, “You guys were shooting and I had tears in my eyes.” I think that, hopefully, one of the things that can come to that scene is this idea that it’s okay to take up time and to take up space, that people can just give you an extra second and get the word out.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Designer: Stephanie Cui
There’s another moment where Oz tells Vic his dad would be proud of him when we know from meeting his dad briefly that that wouldn’t be the case. Yeah, exactly. Vic knows who his father is, and knows he would not want him chopping off pinkies and stuffing dead bodies in the trunks of cars. But it’s one of the things that I think human beings do; push things to the side when deep down we know we’re doing something wrong. I think that’s what Vic has been doing, he’s been shoving it down and Oz brings it all back up. It’s a reminder that he’s not doing the right thing.
I love it when Oz starts Vic on $1,000 a week and Vic asks for two. Oz loves that. You can see the allure for sure. Yeah, I think Vic sees Oz, and he admires how Oz is. He’s got this face with a big scar, and he’s got this limp, and yet he’s the loudest guy in the room. He comes in and he can harm anybody, but he comes in and makes a joke, makes people laugh. And I think Victor admires that. I think that there’s also this idea of power that Oz has, he’s got people working for him, and he’s a smart dude. He’s playing chess, and everyone else is playing checkers.
You and Colin have such great chemistry and he’s been in the industry for a long time. Did he offer you any advice? I would ask him questions every now and then. I’d ask him sometimes, like, “Is it too far in one direction? Is it not enough?” He would give me advice on that, but only when I asked. He was very careful not to make it feel like there was this sort of hierarchy, even though he, deservingly, is up on a bit of a pedestal, but he was very aware to not make it feel like that.
There were a couple of times when, artistically, I didn’t want to do something. Maybe they’d ask me to say something, and I’m like, “I didn’t feel right.” I think he’d see it on my face, and a couple of times he pulled me aside to say, “Hey, if you don’t want to say it, don’t say it. Your instincts are good. I’ve seen you.” Those moments where I’d be afraid to speak up because I’m the younger actor on set, and he’s telling me to trust my instincts. It’s funny, it’s really similar to what Oz says to Victor.
Editors note: After we wrapped the interview, we checked to see if Rhenzy’s mom had heard anything. Rest assured, she hadn’t.
The Penguin airs each Sunday on HBO at 9 pm ET.
Photographer: George Chinsee Entertainment Editor: Sophie Hanson Grooming: Joelis Vallejo Styling: Raziel Martinez Rhenzy wears Ferragamo
Much like the movie that spawned it, Matt Reeves‘ 2022 The Batman, new HBO series The Penguin invites the viewer to creep into Gotham City’s dark, gritty underworld. There’s nothing bright and glossy about Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and his life on the mean streets—he may have comic-book origins, but authenticity is the buzzword here. That commitment extends even to the character’s prosthetic make-up. Sure, there are the facial layers that make Farrell largely unrecognizable, but The Penguin is also going below the belt when necessary.
In the opening episode for the spinoff series, Cobb and his foe Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) share a scene in which he’s tied up and tortured by her henchman as she takes him to task for his role in the death of her brother, Alberto. It’s a tense interrogation but the scene is made even more agonizing by the fact that Cobb is completely naked. The audience only gets a glimpse at his fleshy body from the side, but apparently care was taken to transform all of Farrell into the character.
Speaking to Variety, Farrell explained how the show’s prosthetics designer, Michael Marino, who also made the face and body additions he wears while in character, crafted an “anatomically correct” appliance for him to wear… down there. “I had a velcro piece to stick on, and a nice retro bush,” the actor said, calling the prosthetic a source of “surreal discomfort.” Even though he was technically fully covered, he felt so vulnerable he covered up with a towel between takes.
“That was kind of the strange psychological no man’s land that you could find yourself in when you’re the canvas to something as powerful as the makeup designed for it,” he explained. “I felt incredibly exposed, even though I was anything but. I was totally covered, but I was covered by a naked man. And it’s not like I thought I was him, but it had a very strange effect on my ego.”
The Penguin runs for a total of eight episodes, with new installments arriving Sundays on HBO and Max. In addition to Farrell and Milioti, it stars Rhenzy Feliz (as Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush). It was developed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc.
While the Penguin has been a long-standing supervillain in the Batman comics since 1941, Oswald Cobb was creatively birthed in a simpler time when we didn’t care so much about villain origin stories. HBO‘s limited The Penguin series sets to change all of that, including providing the reason for what happened to his foot that causes his limp.
In episode one, we see the reason for Oz’s waddle, so to speak, as he arrives home and removes his shoes (and let’s point out that he most certainly does not appreciate the nickname, Penguin). “I had sculpted like 20 minutes before [Colin] came—a foot that I thought was crazy,” Mike Marino, prosthetic designer, told The Wrap. “He sat in the chair and I was working in the corner and I showed him and I was like, ‘What do you think of this thing?’”
Farrell was a fan instantly. “It’s so lo-fi and yet so highly brilliant. It’s real hands-on art the way artisans envision it,” he said. “Not to deny the advent of technology and the benefits of it as well in all sorts of realms of experience—but the hands-on makeup that this guy designs and applies, what Dick Smith did, what Rick Baker did, all these geniuses. I just hope that all filmmakers choose to use practical, in-camera stuff.”
As showrunner Lauren LeFranc explained to IGN it was important to show why he limps—due to having clubfoot, a congenital foot deformity—in the first episode of The Penguin to, rather poetically, “firmly establish why and to show the level of pain that he puts himself through, but doesn’t speak about it.”
She continued, “This is nothing that we’ve ever put on camera but in my mind, because if you have a clubfoot, now there’s a surgery you can get, and that often people do. And so, for my reasoning as to why he doesn’t, he grew up with very little money. He didn’t come from anything, and his mother didn’t decide to spend the money on a surgery like that,” she said. (According to Mount Sinai, clubfoot is rather simply corrected through lengthening or shortening the Achilles tendon.)
“Also, because she doesn’t see it as a disability. She doesn’t see it as a problem. She sees it as a way for him to strengthen himself. Something I was conscious of are the sort of comic book tropes that have come before, of those who are other, those who have disabilities, those who have scars on their face. They’re often easily depicted as the villain, and I think it’s just an unfortunate thing in our comic book history, and I wanted to try to disrupt that as much as possible.”
“So for me, it was important to show that Oz, psychologically, is a damaged person. Who he is inside is what informs the choices and the darker choices he makes. It’s not because he has a disability. It’s not based on the way that he looks. Of course, that’s an aspect of his character, but that’s not solely and predominantly why. So that was something that was always very important to me.”
The Penguin premieres on MAX on Thursday, September 19, and then airs episodically each Sunday from September 29.
Carmine Falcone is a key antagonist in The Batman, both in the film directed by Matt Reeves and the comics on which the film is based. A mob leader and supervillain, his murder kicks off the events depicted in HBO‘s gritty drama The Penguin—and sets up a power struggle between the families of Gotham’s underworld, just ripe for Oswald Cobb (not Cobblepot as he’s known in the comics because that would be far too whimsical) to take advantage of.
Episode 1 of the limited series is set a week after Carmine’s death. Oz (Colin Farrell, yes, it’s him) eyes young Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) as a potential recruit; and Sofia (Cristin Milioti) and Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) work to unite their family and find new, ahem, revenue streams after their father’s death.
Who killed Carmine Falcone?
In the closing scenes of The Batman, Carmine Falcone is arrested and escorted by Batman and Commissioner Gordon. Oz confronts Carmine, accusing him of being a rat and threatening him, saying, “Enjoy your night at Blackgate Carmine, it’ll probably be your last.” (Unlike Arkham Asylum, Blackgate is where non-insane criminals such as Catman, David Cain, Monsoon, Ernie Chubb, KGBeast, and various henchmen, mobsters, and mafia bosses are incarcerated.)
“To me, Oz, you were always just a gimp in an empty suit,” provokes Carmine, and Oz whips out a gun from his jacket pocket. Shots are fired, but not from Oz’s gun. Falcone is, instead, shot by the Riddler with a sniper rifle and he dies in Batman’s hands.
It’s a slightly different scenario portrayed in The Penguin because, in the opening montage of news reports, Carmine lies dead outside The Iceberg Lounge—a posh nightclub and Oz’s base of operations—with a sheet draped over his body. Carmine is also played by a different actor in flashbacks.
Why isn’t John Turturro in The Penguin?
John Turturro played Carmine in The Batman but was unavailable to return for The Penguin so he was recast with Mark Strong. “Practically, John was just unavailable to us. He had scheduling conflicts, and we couldn’t make it work, but honestly, I’m so thrilled that we brought Mark Strong on,” showrunner Lauren LeFranc told IGN.
“I think he’s really good. Even though, maybe in the beginning when you first meet him, you might think, ‘Oh. Well, for fans of The Batman, I’m so used to John Turturro,’ and obviously, John’s a great actor, but I feel like the gravitas that Mark brings, it’s different. It’s very specific, and I hope, by the end of that episode, you’re just thinking, ‘That’s Carmine Falcone,’ and you’re engaged in what Mark brings to it.”
The Penguin premieres on MAX on Thursday, September 19, and then will air episodically on Sundays from September 29.
The Penguin arrives this week on HBO, expanding the gritty crime world of Matt Reeves’ The Batman movie into a spin-off series focused on Colin Farrell’s villainous character. Though his rogues’ gallery moniker remains the same, the Penguin’s real name was changed in the 2022 movie from Oswald Cobblepot, his name since his 1941 Detective Comics debut, to “Oz Cobb.” At long last, we have some details about why that happened.
As reported in SFX Magazine (via Comic Book Movie), “Oz Cobb” should not be interpreted as the character having shortened his admittedly sort of goofy last name.This guy is Oz Cobb, full stop. Speaking to the magazine, producer Dylan Clark explained what happened, pointing first to an earlier Batman villain name change as a precedent. “They never got around to changing his name in the comics like they did with the Riddler, going from Edward Nigma to Edward Nashton, from an unreal name to a real name. By doing that they grounded the character,” Clark said.
The Penguin team got what sounds like an enthusiastic go-ahead from DC Comics boss Jim Lee. “They had thought about changing his name at some point but had never done it. Matt asked, ‘Can I call our character Oz Cobb?’ And Jim said, ‘Absolutely!’ So we got a blessing from the king himself. That small change of the name allowed us to look at this character in a grounded way.”
Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin showrunner and creator, explained that like The Batman, the show is “creating new canon,” bringing its own flavor to familiar characters. “It felt like in the Gotham City that Matt created in his film, Cobblepot seemed less of a real person in the way that Cobb is a real last name. He’s a gangster and it just kind of felt more correct.”
“Cobb” may roll off the tongue a bit more sharply, but isn’t it actually more terrifying to have a ruthless guy after you who answers to “Cobblepot”?
DC Comics fans will get to know a lot more about Farrell’s breakout character when The Penguin, which also stars Cristin Milioti (as Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (as Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (as Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (as Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (as Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (as Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (as Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (as Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (as Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (as Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (as Dr. Julian Rush), arrives September 19 on HBO.
Matt Reeves started to create a whole universe with the release of 2022’s The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader.
The filmmaker is expanding the world with The Penguin, an HBO original series centered on Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb, which will premiere on the premium cable network and Max in September.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reeves explains why two series he had been developing, set in what he calls the Batman Epic Crime Saga, had been canceled for now.
“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,” Reeves told EW. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”
Reeves and producing partner Dylan Clark had been working on a couple of series, one focusing on the Gotham Police Department and a second set in the Arkham Asylum. HBO executives gave Reeves notes and the filmmaker said that some elements will be making it into The Penguin.
“They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters,’” Reeves said.
He continued, “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.”
Reeves said he “wanted it to be, not in a grandiose way, but in a mythic Shakespearean way, this kind of great tale.”
Warner Bros. was designating DC shows as “Max Originals” rather than “HBO Originals” as late as last week, when the latest trailer for The Penguin dropped. But there’s been a shift in the branding, according to a report in Variety that HBO and Max content CEO Casey Bloys is “moving most of Max’s upcoming big-budget, tentpole Warner Bros. IP projects to under the HBO umbrella.”
This shift covers shows releasing in 2025 and beyond—so 2024 releases The Penguin and Dune: Prophecy are both expected to still be labeled as Max shows; “the process of licensing [The Penguin] internationally has already started,” Bloys explained. But once the calendar turns over, look for Lanterns, Stephen King-inspired It prequel series Welcome to Derry, and the Harry Potter series that WB is insistent upon making to fall under that HBO Originals banner.
This switch undoes the previous intention to keep all shows based on WB properties under the Max Originals label, and it came about when Bloys and other execs realized the WB shows weren’t all that different from HBO’s own creations. “As we started producing those shows, we were using the same methods, the same kind of thinking, as how we would approach HBO shows,” he told Variety, noting that there’s even crossover between talent, such as Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof now working on Lanterns. “The idea of the delineation kind of started to feel unnecessary … Let’s just call them what they are: HBO shows.”
What does that mean for viewers? Not a lot. It means that if you see an HBO Original being marketed, it will get the perceived prestige of being on the HBO linear channel; all HBO shows will still stream on Max. Max-only series will still exist, but they’ll be “more in the broadcast/traditional TV vein” and will have more scaled-down budgets compared to the HBO shows. When asked why the company doesn’t just make every show an HBO show, which would be the least confusing way forward, Bloys said, “I do think it is helpful to have a brand that doesn’t put the expectations or the intention of an HBO show. If it’s not designed to do that, it shouldn’t have to.”
Make of that what you will. The Penguin, perhaps the last of the DC Max Originals, arrives September 8.
The Max-DC series, which stars Colin Farrell in a spinoff of the film “The Batman,” is set to return to shooting now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has been settled. Production on the series will resume the week after Thanksgiving, Variety has learned. It originally began in March 2023 but was suspended in June during the writers’ strike and subsequent actors’ strike in Hollywood.
Farrell will reprise the role of Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot in the series after delivering a critically-acclaimed turn as the iconic character in the hit film.
The show will pick up in the immediate aftermath of the conclusion of “The Batman” and will chart Cobblepot’s rise to power in the Gotham underworld to become one of Batman’s most feared villains. On the live-action side, The Penguin has previously been played by actors like Burgess Meredith, Danny DeVito, and Robin Lord Taylor.
Along with Farrell, the cast includes Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, Carmen Ejogo, François Chau, and David H. Holmes.
“The Penguin” will consist of eight episodes. Lauren LeFranc is the writer, executive producer, and showrunner. “The Batman” director Matt Reeves executive produces via 6th & Idaho, while Dylan Clark executive produces via Dylan Clark Productions. Farrell executive produces in addition to starring. Craig Zobel is executive producing and directing the first three episodes. 6th & Idaho’s Daniel Pipski also serves as executive producer, as does Bill Carraro, with Rafi Crohn co-executive producing.
Warner Bros. Television is the studio. 6th & Idaho is currently under an overall deal at WBTV. The series is based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
