Colin Farrell is set to return as The Penguin in his very own Batman spin-off series, in addition to a Gotham City PD series on HBO Max. It’ll star Eternals actor, Barry Keoghan, reprising his role as Stanley Merkel. Farrell is set to make his debut as the DC Comics villain in Matt Reeves’ upcoming movie franchise reboot.

The film will see the character prior to his days as The Penguin, when he’s still going by the name of Oswald Cobblepot. The film will see a facially scarred Cobblepot on the rise in Gotham’s criminal underworld, and his strive to avoid being called The Penguin.

The Batman is set in Bruce Wayne’s sophomore year of fighting crime as the Dark Knight. He is faced with a deep web of corruption in Gotham, with ties back to his family—all while simultaneously hunting down a serial killer known as The Riddler.

Robert Pattinson is leading the film’s ensemble cast alongside Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Jeffrey Wright as Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, and Farrell as Cobblepot.

The announcement of The Batman spin-off series comes nearly three months after word first broke that the Gotham City PD series was in development.

According to Variety, the series will explore his character’s rise through Gotham’s criminal underworld. Lauren LeFranc is attached to pen the script for the series with Warner Bros. Television set to produce for HBO Max, and Colin Farrell will also be attached as a producer.

This franchise reboot and early announcements to develop spin-off series has been great news for DC fans. The Batman is reportedly going to be one of the darkest iterations of Batman that we’ve seen since the Nolan-verse, with many similarities to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. Though Warner Bros. has yet to formerly announce the film’s sequel, Reeves has confirmed that the reboot is intended to set up a trilogy, while several of the cast members have also confirmed that they have signed on to multiple films.

The Batman is set to hit theaters March 4, 2022. While The Batman will make it to theaters this year (fingers crossed), other films have been delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. Is anything you want to see delayed?

Photos via Warner Bros.