Fox's late, lamented Gotham proved that it was possible to make a TV show about Gotham City without actually using Batman (although it did feature a young Bruce Wayne). Still, there were some doubts when HBO revealed plans for The Penguin, a spinoff of 2022's The Batman reboot film.
Set immediately after the movie, as a flooded Gotham City tries to recover, Oz Cobblepot (a nearly unrecognizable Colin Farrell) starts making moves to rise in the Gotham underworld. That has him clashing with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), daughter of a powerful mob boss.
The first season ended with Oz succeeding in rising to the top, despite all he sacrificed to get there. It appeared to conclude with him triumphant…only for the last seconds to show the Bat-Signal lighting up the sky.
That came after months of speculation that Robert Pattinson would appear as the Dark Knight or at least Bruce Wayne. As it turned out, that almost happened!
Robert Pattinson wasn't necessary for The Penguin, so they excluded Batman
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on the show and its whopping 24 Emmy nominations, showrunner Lauren LeFranc revealed that she and Matt Reeves had toyed with the idea of a Batman cameo but ultimately decided it would be too distracting to Oz’s story.
“Matt and I talked about it a lot. It just didn’t feel necessary. It felt like we’d be wrenching him in just to say we had The Batman in our show, when in reality, I feel like my goal at least was always to create rich enough, compelling characters that you weren’t desperate to see him, which I know is a tall order because so many people love Batman, and Rob Pattinson is so good as Batman. But, yes, we were doing something a little different. We’re through the lens of Oz. We’re on the streets. There’s a gang war happening. We always would say, “Batman’s up high looking down on Gotham, and Oz is in the muck, wanting to get up there and to achieve a level of power.” So, yes, we talked about it, but honestly, we just didn’t want to interfere with the story that we had.”
The interview had LeFranc confirming that she didn’t want to do what Gotham did and overload the series with cameos of other Batman villains. It also makes sense that Batman is busy trying to contain the chaos across Gotham, and had bigger fish to fry than Oz.
When asked about the chances of a second season, LeFranc relayed that a major stumbling block is that The Batman 2 has been delayed to 2027, and they would have to wait for that to continue Oz’s story. She stated that they always saw this as a limited series with no plans for a second season, despite plot threads like the reveal that Sofia was the half-sister of Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz).
Farrell will be reprising his role in The Batman II, and thus, there is a strong possibility of a clash with Batman.