In The Penguin, Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) ruffled the feathers of Batman’s rogues gallery. As the new kingpin of Gotham City, Oz outmaneuvered the likes of Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown) — a rival gangster who caused Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face in the comics — and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), the half-sister of Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), after their father was gunned down by the Riddler (Paul Dano) in 2022’s The Batman movie. The DC Studios and HBO drama also introduced versions of the lesser-known Bat-villains Magpie (Marié Botha), Squid (Jared Abrahamson), and Dr. Ventris/Mirror Man (T. Ryder Smith).
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As chief psychiatrist at Arkham State Hospital, Ventris subjected an incarcerated Sofia to electroshock therapy and sparked an obsession within her psychiatrist: Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi).
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Theories speculated that Rush — who doesn’t have a counterpart in the comic books — was a cover for his true identity: either the twisted psychiatrist Hugo Strange (who once experimented on Arkham Asylum inmates) or psychologist Dr. Jonathan Crane (the fear-inducing supervillain Scarecrow). Fans noticed what appeared to be a burlap mask and a needle-fingered glove on display in Rush’s office, similar to the glove Scarecrow used to inject his fear toxins in the Batman: Arkham video games.
So, was Rush Scarecrow all along? Afraid not.
“I can say he’s not the Scarecrow,” The Penguin series creator and showrunner Lauren LeFranc told ScreenRant.
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While the series utilized Magpie and Ventris when unspooling Sofia’s 10-year incarceration in Arkham — which eventually houses fellow Batman villains like the Riddler and the Joker (Barry Keoghan) — LeFranc decided against teasing some of the more infamous inmates from the comics.
“Honestly, for [episode 4], we thought just about Sophia’s journey [in Arkham],” she said in a previous interview. “We didn’t want to have a character that would detract from her experience or have people be like, ‘Oh, it’s [that villain]. Not a casual Joker, not a Harley Quinn.”
“Those characters are amazing,” LeFranc continued, “but for what we were doing, we’re telling Sophia’s story. And we just wanted you to be immersed in her perspective.”
All episodes of The Penguin — starring Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti alongside Rhenzy Feliz, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Michael Kelly, Theo Rossi, Carmen Ejogo, Michael Zegen, and Mark Strong — are available to stream now on Max.
