Colin Farrell is fresh off of his first-ever Emmy nomination (in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category) for The Penguin, but for a while he wasn’t sure if the show would ever get made. Between the WGA strike of 2023 to the unpredictability of Warner Bros. Discovery under the reign of David Zaslav, there was a genuine possibility that Oz Cobb would only exist within The Batman’s Gotham.
When asked by Variety if he thought there were times that The Penguin would get the ax, Colin Farrell admitted that there indeed were, while also taking a swipe at the absurd cancellation of Batgirl. “Yeah, a couple, like the during the strike. And in a world where they can make a “Batgirl” film and then just can it. I don’t understand it — the debits and credits and ledgers and, f*cking, all that stuff — but they can decide that it’s economically advantageous to just shelve a $90 million film that people have put so much effort into it. You better believe it. When we were in the middle of the strike, I remember saying to my sister, ‘I don’t know if we’re gonna go back to this. I don’t know if we’re gonna finish it.’ I did get nervous.”
But when the strike concluded after a nearly five-month battle, things started looking up and the camaraderie was real for The Penguin, with Farrell adding, “But seeing everyone at the end of the strike and going back to pick up where we left off, it was such a f*cking deeply heartfelt reunion. It was unbelievable. It was such a joy to see everyone, and everyone was so relieved and gung-ho and just wanted to finish it. I’m thrilled for the whole crew and the cast. It was such a communal effort.”
Expectedly, Farrell still isn’t convinced there will ever be a second season of The Penguin, even though the series snagged 24 Emmy nominations (notably in the limited series category). Farrell is competing against Adolescence’s Stephen Graham, Presumed Innocent’s Jake Gyllenhaal, Dope Thief’s Brian Tyree Henry, and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’s Cooper Koch.
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