The Batman dodged a bullet by putting original designs for Colin Farrell's Penguin on ice. Matt Reeves' The Batman enjoyed rampant praise for its depiction of Gotham City, grungey neo-noir tone, and grounded characterizations of DC favorites. Among those celebrated by critics was Colin Farrell as Penguin - still a mob underboss working for Carmine Falcone during The Batman's Year Two era. Intimidating, affable, and ever-so-slightly comedic, Farrell's Penguin performance is built upon a striking physical transformation. Through prosthetics, makeup, and costume, The Batman turns Farrell into a true onscreen presence - tall, stocky, and with heavy-set facial features.
Apparently, this wasn't always the case. Newly-surfaced The Batman concept art by Adam Brockbank shows Colin Farrell's Penguin looking like... Colin Farrell in a suit. The designs show no obvious sign of facial prosthetic attachments, and absolutely no sign of the large, weighty frame seen in The Batman's finished cut. This radically different getup would seem to suggest The Batman initially cast Farrell in the Oswald Cobblepot role without any intention of drastically altering his actor's look, and the decision to slather him in rubber only came further into production.
Like measuring Robert Pattinson against George Clooney, there really is no comparison between Penguin's two designs. While Colin Farrell's The Batman performance would've impressed whatever he wore on the outside, Penguin's prosthetics and costume help craft a fascinating, lived-in figure whose inner personality is reflected by a harsh exterior. More than just making Falcone's bulky right-hand-man more intimidating than Colin Farrell in his regular guise, the addition of facial scars give Penguin an unspoken backstory - an implicit history of violence that depicts the brutal darkness of Gotham City's underbelly in a single glance. You just don't get those qualities by presenting Colin Farrell as he comes.
With The Batman, Matt Reeves delights in delivering radical new versions of classic DC characters - some closer to the comics than others. Paul Dano's Riddler is almost completely detached from the original puzzle master, but Selina Kyle, Penguin and Batman share more common ground with their authentic incarnations. Colin Farrell's Penguin undoubtedly benefits by falling into the latter category. Without the wild physical transformation, The Batman's Oswald Cobblepot is just a regular gangster, interchangeable from any number of movie wiseguys. Throwing those rubbery enhancements into the (Cobble)pot turns a nondescript gangster into a proper Gotham baddie who feels at home within the oppressive, gothic world Matt Reeves constructs.
When The Batman's Penguin was first unveiled, audiences were stunned into disbelief that Colin Farrell hid somewhere underneath. The actor was unrecognizable clad in his elaborate costume, and that shock factor undoubtedly added to Penguin's aura of quirky uniqueness. Villains undergoing grotesque or unsettling transformations is something of a Batman tradition, from Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer, to Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. Somehow, the development process of physically turning a famous actor into a Batman villain makes said villain all the more effective on film, and Colin Farrell is arguably the best proof yet of that Batman movie rule succeeding. Dano's Riddler and Zoë Kravitz's Catwoman are too human for that role, which meant only Penguin could outwardly represent Gotham City's monstrous nature.
Hollywood also boasts a long history of classic gangster characters undergoing physical transformations to better capture the essence of their characters. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino famously both underwent facial alterations for The Godfather, and the power of their performances intensified as a result. The Batman's Penguin follows in that same mafioso vein, and just like the Corleones, those visual enhancements make for a deeper, more nuanced criminal.
