Mild spoilers below for HBO’s The Penguin, so be warned if you haven’t yet watched or streamed with a Max subscription.
With its first four episodes, The Penguin has not only lived up to the esteemed reputation of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but it’s also become a bastion of pride and hope for DC fans disenfranchised by the box office rejection of Joker: Folie à Deux. It’s arguably already in the Top 10 tier out of everything that’s hit the 2024 TV schedule so far. But you know what could possibly make it even better? Gotham characters.
I know, I know, this is as much of an exercise in Bat-futility as fighting for Gotham to survive beyond its five seasons. But while Robert Pattinson’s solo Caped Crusder feature was often a bit too dour for Gotham’s over-the-top shenanigans, Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb and his underworld could provide a more perfect union between the two universes, if only in my well-intentioned headcanon.
It’d be one thing if we knew for a fact that The Penguin wasn’t introducing any other major Batman characters from comics and other lore beyond the Falcones and Maronis, but the fourth episode surprisingly introduced, and brutally dispatched, a lesser-utilized villain who informed Sofia’s time in Arkham Asylum. (And one who also popped up in Gotham, non-coincidentally enough.) So let’s look at the actors and characters I think would work best within showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s G.C.
Donal Logue's Harvey Bullock
Donal Logue is the kind of actor that makes everything better, and rarely takes parts in subjectively terrible projects, so he’s a best-case scenario for entertainment hounds. He can bring both comedic and dramatic chops to whatever part he’s playing, and commands attention while doing it. So he wouldn’t be in danger of being out-acted alongside the lofty talents of Farrell, Cristin Milioti, and others.
And that’s just talking about Logue himself. It’s been two and a half years since The Batman came out, and I’m still fooling myself into thinking Harvey Bullock existed in that film, because he’s such a classic foil and enforcer within the GCPD in just about every iteration of Gotham City’s law enforcement rankings. But no, he wasn’t in there at all.
There’s no need for The Penguin’s creative team to think-tank up a brand new version of the character, either. Just go with a version we all know and love who isn’t so much of a dirty-dealing douchebag, but also isn’t a costume-glorifying sycophant. He’s been right there waiting the whole time, and he looks a lot like Donal Logue.
Morena Boccarin's Dr. Lee Thompkins
For anyone who was a bit bummed out that Morena Baccarin didn’t have more of a hefty role within Shawn Levy’s madcap Deadpool & Wolverine, you’re not alone. And that was hardly the first time the actress got mixed up with characters who lead deadly and sordid lives. Only in Gotham, Baccarin’s Dr. Lee Thompkins wasn’t on the outside of the story; she was fully invested in batshit, action-packed arcs that turned her from romantic interest to a villainous partner for Ed Nygma.
Even when the story seemed wonky, Baccarin is the kind of pro that made it all work, and I think she would bring the same gravitas to The Penguin, where a character like Lee Thompkins could provide a lot of help (or harm). Though neither the Waynes nor James Gordon is part of Oz’s TV world, this is a show with an already established (if entirely questionable) psychologist in Theo Rossi’s Dr. Julian Rush.
Depending on where Rush’s story goes, and whether or not he remains a helpful and living presence to Sofia throughout the season, I could easily see the series bringing in Leslie Thompkins to either investigate the other doctor’s practices or to potentially sway Sofia to her own teachings.
Drew Powell's Butch Gilzean
As it went with so many of Gotham’s cast members, Drew Powell could turn any scene from a snore into a riot as the boss-flipping enforcer Butch Gilzean. The actor is a big and intimidating dude, which helps to sell the role since he’s also quite a brainy and intelligent charmer. Honestly, if Butch entered the world of The Penguin, he’d probably be a made man before the end of his first episode.
By the end of Gotham’s run, Butch was revealed to be the alter ego of zombie-man Solomon Grundy, which turned into a whole stockpile of bonkers in and of itself. But I think we can all agree that The Penguin should and would bypass that whole Slaughter Swamp-related arc and just keep it to Powell’s more distinctly human performance. And it would be awesome.
Surprise Fourth Entry! Cameron Monaghan's Jeremiah Valeska
Yeahhhh, okay, so as a Gotham fanatic, I would have trouble making it through life with my sanity intact if didn’t continuously preach for Cameron Monaghan’s return to the DC universe as some version of The Joker. His performances on Gotham as both Jerome and Jeremiah (and eventually just “J”) were rather iconic at times, and understandably could only happen in bursts rather than as an ongoing arc across 20+ episodes.
A show like The Penguin, with its shortened season length, would be a perfect spot for either a similar mini-arc, or even just a one-episode appearance, from Monaghan in an outlandish capacity. Obviously this is a more grounded crime drama that has spawned myriad comparisons to The Sopranos, but Jeremiah Valeska is far calmer and quieter than his brother was, and with fewer scars.
Granted, Barry Keoghan’s brief appearance in The Batman is presumably setting up a bigger Joker arc in The Batman: Part II, which would make Cameron Monaghan’s proto-Clown Prince somewhat redundant. As if such a word could be applied to the gloriousness of Gotham’s Valeska brothers. So I guess it’s the least likely of any of these pipe dreams, but in chaos, we trust.
The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET.
