Paul Reubens Talks Gotham

Paul Reubens talks about playing Penguin’s father for the second time on Gotham

Paul Reubens is playing Penguin’s long lost father on Gotham. He also played Penguin’s father in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns movie, making it a fun fan service casting as well (maybe not as cool if Danny Devito, who played the Penguin in Batman Returns was cast, but still pretty good). But Reubens considers the two roles very different, like he’s not really playing the same character again:

"It’s not something that I really viewed as playing it again. It was 20 something years ago. It’s quite a number of years ago I did that. It was one day’s work and very, very quick. This is really almost nothing like it. It didn’t feel like I was revisiting anything, but it was exciting to have a lot of people around me going, “Oh my God, you were already this character.” It’s a very different story, different character, and a lot of time in between, so it didn’t seem so much like I was repeating anything."

Next: Gotham: Sean Pertwee Talks Bruce Wayne On The Streets

Though we’ve only seen the briefest glance, the characters do seem very different. One thing that appears to be similar is that in both cases, Penguin’s father at least seems to be a member of high society. Will that cause an eventual rift between Penguin and his father? Penguin has almost always been a rich man, money was rarely ever the driving force behind his crimes. Assuming Penguin’s father is rich, would Penguin want to use that money to further his criminal career and once again rise to the throne of King of Gotham? One way to find out is to tune in to tonight’s episode, “Mad Grey Dawn” and catch the debut of Paul Reubens as Penguin’s father, Elijah Van Dahl!

h/t Parade