Spoilers below for the chuckleheads who still haven’t finished watching The Penguin on HBO or streaming it with a Max subscription, so be warned!
I had no doubts that The Penguin would be a superbly enjoyable spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but somehow still didn’t expect the show to become one of my absolute favorites amidst the 2024 TV schedule, while temporarily putting Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb a rung higher than Batman himself in my mind. From its flooded beginnings to its highrise ending, complete with that damned Bat Signal, The Penguin reached pure perfection at times, and I was immediately clamoring for more.
However, with time to sit back and reflect on everything that went down in Penguin’s finale, I decided my initial Season 2 hopes and dreams were misguided, and that Oz doesn’t deserve to get back in the spotlight after doing Vic so, so wrong. At the moment, it’s entirely unclear what this character’s future will be, beyond appearing for what Farrell says is a handful of scenes in Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II, which isn’t coming until October 2026.
Given that giant hiatus, it would make far more sense for Reeves and HBO to explore an entirely different villain’s backstory and ongoing daily life with a standalone TV show. I mean, I would have chosen Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone had she not already been just as stunning to watch as Farrell’s prosthetic-enhanced performance. So here’s the big villain I’d most want to see shaking up primetime television.
I Want A Show Based On The Scarecrow Himself, Dr. Jonathan Crane
To say it right up top, the main thing working against this idea is that The Scarecrow has already been highlighted throughout a variety of different formats, including animation and live-action Batman movies. Before landing the Oscar for Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy portrayed psychiatrist Jonathan Crane and his fear-mongering Scarecrow alter ego in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, while others took the role in Gotham and Titans. Meanwhile, The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s Ted Knight and Futurama’s John DiMaggio are among dozens who’ve voiced the villain over the years.
But to me, that just reads as “The Scarecrow is a character worthy of exploring and evolving.” To that second point, Crane and his Fear Toxin are only utilized in short bursts of nightmarish hellscapes the majority of the time when he’s at his most threatening. But the idea of a slow-burning psychological thriller morphing into a hallucinogenic horror sounds like apex television to yours truly. (Extra points if Hugo Strange is also involved.)
In the same way that showrunner Lauren LeFranc used The Penguin to put a microscopic focus on Oz Cobb’s depthless selfishness and self-delusions, a Scarecrow series could dig into not just Crane’s biggest fears (including bats, obviously), but also those of others in Gotham City, particularly within the walls of Arkham Asylum. And what better way to tap into characters’ twisted psyches than through surreal hallucinations and tripped-out visuals?
As opposed to being a full-life origin story, the core arc of the show could track the development of the Fear Toxin from its humble and small-scale beginnings to whatever gamechanging concoction he’d make that would theoretically get Batman’s attention down the line. Where the visuals and Crane’s connection with reality both become more untethered and bizarre.
There would presumably be emotional arcs and other stakes involved, but I’d envision a Scarecrow series being as similarly outside-the-box as FX and Marvel’s Legion, with Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza. What The Penguin owes to The Sopranos, a Scarecrow series might owe to an overexposed VHS version of Fear and Loathing with Requiem for a Dream recorded on top of it.
But I'd Also Love To See Carmen Ejogo's Eve Karlo Become Lady Clayface
Not that HBO would need to pull in a character that doesn't already exist within The Batman's extended universe. If push came to shove, I might be just as into a Penguin spinoff focusing on Carmen Ejogo's Eve Karlo. After all, it wasn't addressed why she just so happens to share the same comic-friendly surname as Basil Karlo, better known as Clayface.
While it's easy to assume that the name choice is more of a thematic nod than a hint at the character experiencing some bodily changes in the future, it would be awesome to see that character explored across a longer timeline than just a single heist. And it's not as if this would be completely straying from the source material, since there have been several female Clayfaces.
Though The Penguin doesn't play the Clayface card very heavily, Eve is a woman who adjusts and changes herself to appease her clients, to the point where she was quite a serviceable stand-in for Oz's mom Francis as he belly-flopped into Oedipal waters in the finale's last scene. Even if her body isn't physically changing shape, the kernel of the idea is definitely there.
Perhaps Eve's life before becoming a female companion within Gotham's underworld involved an attempt at Hollywood stardom, similar to Basil Karlo's pre-goo comic origin. And perhaps this take on the character would maintain this live-action universe's more grounded realism, and instead of having unnatural abilities, Eve becomes others by taking their faces and skin.
Of course, Eve seems like a level-headed person, and the only way I could see her going all major villain in Gotham City would be to get revenge on Oz for everything she learned about him from Sofia. I've no doubt in my mind that thought was eating at her brain as she put on Francis' dress and jewelry. But without an Oz for her to target, there's less of a reason for any Clayface instincts to come out.
While we're at it, let's go ahead and greenlight a Two-Face TV series that brings a completely new take on courtroom dramas, and doesn't wait until the very end of the season to throw the acid in his face and take him to the darks side. Just don't expect a Catwoman series, because HBO boss Casey Bloys already shot that idea down.
