Colin Farrell and Paul Dano Rumored to Return as The Penguin and The Riddler in 'The Batman: Part II'

by Darian Scalamoni

    We're gearing up for the return of Colin Farrell's version of The Penguin for his upcoming HBO Max series, but it seems like that is far from the end of his gangster character in Matt Reeves BatVerse. According to a report from World of Reel which comes by the way of resident scooper Daniel Richtman, its being rumored that Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin, The Lobster) and Paul Dano (The Fabelmans, There Will Be Blood) will return to their villainous roles in the upcoming sequel to The Batman.

    The Batman: Part II is gearing up for production this upcoming November in London and it's good to know that Reeves is not just throwing away his villains like many other comic book films are known to do. Both Farrell and Dano's characters were well fleshed out throughout the nearly 3-hour runtime of the 2022 film. As we previously mentioned, The Penguin will get his own HBO Max limited series as well that is currently filming and will give Farrell's character even more backstory.

    It's been rumored that Barry Keoghan's take on The Joker will also be the true final villain of Reeves' planned trilogy so expect his role to grow over time. The Batman grossed over $770 million worldwide leading to a true success financially for the Caped Crusader. But even more than that, the film was a massive critical success as well, earning three Oscar nominations and ending up on a ton of critics top 10 lists at the end of 2022. The Batman: Part II will release on October 3, 2025.

    As we mentioned, Farrell is currently filming his Gotham-set crime series revolving around Oswald Cobblepot, however, he also earned his well-deserved Academy Award nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin at the 95th Academy Awards just a few weeks back. He also recently wrapped his AppleTV+ series Sugar which co-stars Amy Ryan and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. 

    Dano recently starred in Steven Spielberg's autobiographical film, The Fabelmans as his father. He has a massive year upcoming appearing in Amazon's Mr. and Mrs. Smith series which stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. He also recently wrapped work in Spaceman for Netflix and Dumb Money, the Wall Street-based true story of GameStop's stock market impact predicated by Redditors during the COVID-19 pandemic.