We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about why zombie movies and TV shows so rarely call their undead characters “zombies”.
Speaking to Deadline yesterday, The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc revealed why the Batman spin-off seems to take the same approach to its eponymous main character.
Played by Colin Farrell, The Penguin is the alias of Gotham’s villain Oswald Cobblepot.
His character often gets called “Oz” and “Oswald” in the show ― but why, when the HBO series uses his nickname in the title, and when everyone calls Bruce Wayne “Batman” in the same universe?
“Oswald” doesn’t like it, apparently
“I knew that Oz didn’t appreciate the term, and that was something that felt derogatory toward him,” the showrunner told Deadline.
“Gangsters in mobs, often they have these nicknames for people. So it made a lot of sense that his nickname from others would be the Penguin. But it’s not a term that he embraces,” LeFranc added.
In fact, the HBO show is meant to diverge from the canonical tails-and-top-hat, umbrella-loving comic book character.
“I wanted to make sure that we could appeal to people who didn’t see it or didn’t think it was for them, who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in a comic book show,” the showrunner revealed.
Colin Farrell seems on board with the change but wishes it had stayed in a deleted scene
Speaking to Deadline, Colin said that he wishes his character’s nickname had stayed in one scene ― even though he liked the change overall.
“There are kids who say to me, ‘you’re a penguin.’ And I say, yeah, ‘that’s right,’” he said.
“I got the sense that Oz was actually stepping into the moniker and into his own kind of mythos,” he continued.
“It’s not essential, but I like that idea that by the end, he’s okay with it. He sees the power in having a moniker like that.”
The Irish actor previously railed against the studio’s decision to remove his character’s signature cigar.
“Big studios make big decisions around such things as the presence of cigarettes in films,” he previously said on Jake’s Takes.
“I fought valiantly for a cigar. At one stage I said, ‘I can have it unlit! Just let me have it unlit’. They were like, ‘no’.”
Colin added: “[As if] a bunch of 12-year-olds are going to start smoking Cuban cigars because [of me].”
You can watch The Penguin on NOW and Sky Atlantic in the UK.