The Penguin takes a lot of inspiration from a slew of characters in the gangster film canon, and there had been conversations among the creators of the character for the film which concerned the likes of Scarface and The Godfather.
The Penguin that Matt Reeves created is by all means a gangster, depicted as a character right out of the Italian Mafia in the Godfather films. However, as many fans thought, the character was not based on Vito Corleone but another character entirely.
The Penguin was based on John Cazale’s Fredo Corleone
When one looks at the look of Fredo Corleone, the inspiration for The Penguin seems pretty clear-cut. The slicked-back hair, the hooked nose, and that combined with Scarface, or Al Capone, gives one a pretty clear visual image of what they were going for. However, it wasn’t just about the look of the character, but also what they wanted him to feel like narratively:
I was looking for that vulnerability. Colin is so handsome, so the idea was, “How can we mess up his face to show that vulnerability?” We started talking about John Cazale in The Godfather and how people just look at him as a joke.
But the truth is that he would have this deep-seated wily rage and ambition within him to do some unspeakable things to get where he wants to go. That’s where it started. I brought in Mike Marino, who’s an incredible makeup artist. We talked about John Cazale, Al Capone, different gangsters.
Given that Colin Farrell is a pretty handsome man, the challenge was to mold him into a Penguin that was believably disfigured. Scarface’s infamous face scar serves as inspiration for The Penguin’s hooked nose, and his sense of style was also taken from the gangsters that had become commonplace with gangster films when they were at their height.
The Penguin has redefined what the superhero genre can do
Sometimes, it gets hard to believe that The Penguin is actually the extension of a superhero universe. A drama that could compete with the likes of Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, The Penguin has managed to redefine what a superhero story can do in a given space. Fans, having witnessed how Marvel approaches its streaming shows, were blown away by the high prestige quality of The Penguin, which is sure to become the industry norm going forward.
DC, with a character and mythology like that of Batman, is uniquely positioned to make superhero drama into a legitimate genre, that focuses on the struggles that these bold and larger-than-life characters go through. While Marvel has touched ever so slightly on the idea with the likes of Daredevil and The Punisher, the superhero prestige drama might be on the precipice of dethroning high-budget fantasy television series as the next great trend on TV.
The Penguin can be streamed on Max
