Why The Batman Keeps Pulling Colin Farrell Back In

Colin Farrell cannot quit Gotham, and honestly, I get it. In a new chat, he unpacked why he keeps coming back to play Oswald 'Oz' Cobb, and he even tossed in a useful timeline nugget about where The Batman 2 lands after The Penguin.

Why Farrell keeps returning to Gotham

Farrell first slipped into the prosthetics for 2022's The Batman, then headlined the 2024 HBO series The Penguin, and he is set to waddle back for the upcoming sequel to The Batman. The performance has not gone unnoticed: he has multiple Primetime Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film for playing Oz.

'I love that world,' Farrell said, citing Batman '66 as his gateway, with Burgess Meredith as his first Penguin and Danny DeVito as his second, before tipping his hat to Christopher Nolan's films.

Beyond the nostalgia, what really hooks him is Matt Reeves' spin on Gotham. Farrell praised how Reeves rebuilt the city into something distinct while still drilling into the rot of Gotham and the headspace of Bruce Wayne. He talked about that core question the best Batman stories wrestle with: where does the mask end and the man begin?

A small but telling timeline detail

In a separate interview, Farrell clarified the gap between projects: The Batman 2 picks up only a few weeks after the events of The Penguin. Translation: the HBO series is essentially a runway straight into the sequel.

• Farrell as Oz returns in The Batman 2, directed by Matt Reeves from a script he co-wrote with Mattson Tomlin
• The Batman 2 is currently scheduled to hit theaters on October 1, 2027

So if you liked living in Reeves' grimy, rain-soaked Gotham, Farrell is right there with you. He grew up on Batman '66, he respects the Nolan era, and he clearly digs where Reeves is taking it — which is probably why he keeps showing up with a grin under all that Penguin makeup.