The Penguin Trailer Goes Full Sopranos
He woke up this morning and got himself a gun.
The Batman was always the moody, emo brother of the modern DC Universe, and that’s not limited to Robert Pattinson’s eyeliner-and-Nirvana portrayal of the caped crusader. Upcoming spinoff series The Penguin does the same with Oswald Cobblepot, following Colin Farrell’s version of the character, who’s a lot more Goodfellas than Batman Returns.
In the series’ newest teaser trailer, its influences are on full display. The show will borrow heavily from HBO’s best crime thriller series, a choice as obvious as it is ingenious. Check out the full teaser below.
The teaser trailer consists of Oz telling an anecdote about an old-school gangster from his neighborhood he looked up to, and how he had a parade thrown in his honor when he died. The monologue continues over shots of mob violence, intimidation, gang hits, bombings, electroshock therapy, and lots and lots of gunshots. “Can you imagine being remembered like that?” he says.
It may seem like a run-of-the-mill teaser, but the shots of Cobblepot sitting in a chair and monologuing almost exactly resemble the scenes in The Sopranos where Tony recounts memories during therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi. At the time, the combination of mafia politics and violence combined with a tough-guy protagonist opening up about his past was groundbreaking. Now, The Penguin will do just that, but with a classic Batman villain.
The Penguin’s monologue pays homage to the original HBO gangster, Tony Soprano.
The Penguin may be spinning off from a blockbuster movie, but it’s not trying to replicate the movie’s tone onto the small screen. Instead, it’s embracing its Max streaming home and bringing back a classic formula. When Batman fans get done with the premiere, they can easily click over on the same app and check out The Sopranos, where it all began.
