While the Penguin has been a long-standing supervillain in the Batman comics since 1941, Oswald Cobb was creatively birthed in a simpler time when we didn’t care so much about villain origin stories. HBO‘s limited The Penguin series sets to change all of that, including providing the reason for what happened to his foot that causes his limp.
In episode one, we see the reason for Oz’s waddle, so to speak, as he arrives home and removes his shoes (and let’s point out that he most certainly does not appreciate the nickname, Penguin). “I had sculpted like 20 minutes before [Colin] came—a foot that I thought was crazy,” Mike Marino, prosthetic designer, told The Wrap. “He sat in the chair and I was working in the corner and I showed him and I was like, ‘What do you think of this thing?’”
Farrell was a fan instantly. “It’s so lo-fi and yet so highly brilliant. It’s real hands-on art the way artisans envision it,” he said. “Not to deny the advent of technology and the benefits of it as well in all sorts of realms of experience—but the hands-on makeup that this guy designs and applies, what Dick Smith did, what Rick Baker did, all these geniuses. I just hope that all filmmakers choose to use practical, in-camera stuff.”
As showrunner Lauren LeFranc explained to IGN it was important to show why he limps—due to having clubfoot, a congenital foot deformity—in the first episode of The Penguin to, rather poetically, “firmly establish why and to show the level of pain that he puts himself through, but doesn’t speak about it.”
She continued, “This is nothing that we’ve ever put on camera but in my mind, because if you have a clubfoot, now there’s a surgery you can get, and that often people do. And so, for my reasoning as to why he doesn’t, he grew up with very little money. He didn’t come from anything, and his mother didn’t decide to spend the money on a surgery like that,” she said. (According to Mount Sinai, clubfoot is rather simply corrected through lengthening or shortening the Achilles tendon.)
“Also, because she doesn’t see it as a disability. She doesn’t see it as a problem. She sees it as a way for him to strengthen himself. Something I was conscious of are the sort of comic book tropes that have come before, of those who are other, those who have disabilities, those who have scars on their face. They’re often easily depicted as the villain, and I think it’s just an unfortunate thing in our comic book history, and I wanted to try to disrupt that as much as possible.”
“So for me, it was important to show that Oz, psychologically, is a damaged person. Who he is inside is what informs the choices and the darker choices he makes. It’s not because he has a disability. It’s not based on the way that he looks. Of course, that’s an aspect of his character, but that’s not solely and predominantly why. So that was something that was always very important to me.”
The Penguin's Disability and How It Connects Him To His New Associate
The Penguin also has a new henchman in the series, Victor Aguilar, played by Rhenzy Feliz. LeFranc explained to Digital Spy that it was important for her to include a stutter in Victor’s character, as it would make sense why Oz would keep a kid like that alive. LeFranc believes that Oz sees a lot of himself in Victor, but that is not the only reason why he decides to keep him around. “It’s not the only attribute of Victor, certainly, but it’s something that connects the two of them. And yet, I wanted to depict someone with a stutter, without it being their major characteristic,” LeFranc explained.
“I think so many people have stutters, and they don’t get that conversation, and they don’t get to see themselves on screen very often. So we worked with a dialect coach, and someone who also has a stutter themselves, and they worked with Rhenzy Feliz, our actor who plays Victor, and the two of them together just created a really organic expression to have a stutter.”
The Penguin premieres on MAX on Thursday, September 19, and then airs episodically each Sunday from September 29.
Along with how two disabilities united key characters.
The Penguin's Limp: A Disability-Focused Storyline In The Show
The mobster, played by Colin Farrell, returns from 2022's The Batman movie, and delves into his backstory, and new henchman, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz).
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, she explained: "What we establish in the first episode is that he has a clubfoot, and to me what I found interesting about that, in present times, often people get surgery and often fix a clubfoot.
"But in my mind, his mother, who didn't have a lot of money, decided that the difference in him would make him stronger. That he didn't need to change an aspect of himself in that regard."
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Meanwhile, in the show, The Penguin recruits a right-hand man to assist with his criminal plans, who interestingly has a stutter, which unfortunately you don't see represented much in TV or film.
Speaking about Oz's alliance with Victor, LeFranc told Digital Spy: "It was important for me to give him a stutter because it made sense to me why Oz would keep a kid like that alive. Part of it is that he sees this kid who reminds him of himself, in a way, but also Victor has a disability and Oz does too, and then they never speak about it.
"It's not the only attribute of Victor, certainly, but it's something that connects the two of them. And yet, I wanted to depict someone with a stutter, without it being their major characteristic.
Related: The Penguin gets impressive Rotten Tomatoes score in first reviews
"I think so many people have stutters, and they don't get that conversation, and they don't get to see themselves on screen very often. So we worked with a dialect coach, and someone who also has a stutter themselves, and they worked with Rhenzy Feliz, our actor who plays Victor, and the two of them together just created a really organic expression to have a stutter."
Meanwhile, Colin Farrell and The Batman: Part 2 director Matt Reeves have teased Barry Keoghan's upcoming role as The Joker, and The Penguin has landed a high score from the first wave of Rotten Tomatoes reviews.
The Penguin will debut on Max in the US on September 19, and NOW and Sky Atlantic in the UK on September 20.
