Colin Farrell's Penguin Character In 'The Batman' Will Not Sport Signature Cigar

The newest Batman movie will be released on March 4 and has several of our favorite actors on set. Robert Pattinson will play the masked crusader with Zoë Kravitz as Batwoman, John Turturro as Falcone, Colin Farrell as Penguin, and Paul Dano as The Riddler.

Several DC characters are known for significant parts of their get-up. The Riddler is famous for his green outfit emblazoned with question marks, Catwoman is known for her skin-tight black latex outfit, and even Batman is known for his black garb with the bat insignia in front. However, some characters will not have all parts of their costume.

Due to a ban on smoking, Penguin, played by Farrell, won't have his trusty cigar or cigarette holder with him. Upon hearing the news, the actor said he "fought valiantly" for the cigar, even an unlit one but the studio ultimately rejected it.

The new Batman movie is based on the comic book and shows Batman in his crime-fighting era. The film also has notorious villains like Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman. Oswald Cobblepost, known by his villain name, Penguin, is a crime kingpin played by Farrell.

Penguin is known for his looks, top hat, monocle, and the ever-present cigar. However, according to Farrell, one of his signature get-ups will be missing. The actor revealed that the studio didn't let his villainous cigar-loving character have his signature cigar.

In an interview with Jake's Takes, Farrell said, "Big studios make big decisions around such things as the presence of cigarettes in films."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZRSgceeCM

Farrell isn't the first actor to have an issue with the ban because of a nicotine inhaling character. Emma Stone voiced a similar problem in 2021 when she talked about her performance in "Cruella." She revealed that she was initially excited about the "green plume of smoke" but wasn't allowed to smoke on screen in a Disney production.

This new look for Penguin didn't sit right with Farrell, so he asked the studio for a cigar. In his interview, the actor said that he "fought valiantly" for the Crime Lord's cigar, but the studio was adamant.

He said, "I fought valiantly for a cigar; I even said at one stage 'can I have it unlit' and they were like "no,' like a bunch of 12-year-olds were going to start smoking Cuban cigars because of [it]."

Farrell added, "The Oz that we meet hasn't embodied the energy of Penguin that we recognize from the source comics and from previous films, so I'll see if it goes again. I'd love to explore it because he's not an underboss, he's not a boss, he's just a soldier of Falcone at this stage. But he has great ambition and dreams of doing big big things."

In the same interview, Falcone's actor, Turturro, revealed that he would love to see Farrell "discover the cigarette holder." In response, Farrell said, "That would be a good moment. HBO, give me the green light for that one."

The actor also revealed that Penguin's character in "The Batman" merely scratched the surface of the villain's actual character, and he wanted to explore the role more. The movie takes place before the villain's full transformation, so he'll look less like the hobbling crime lord we know.

According to Variety, Farrell's comment about Penguin could hint at a possible spin-off series based on the monocle-wearing villain. However, the news wasn't confirmed by HBO Max. In the past, several DC movies and series spin-offs were released on HBO Max, including "Peacemaker," so this one might not be different.

Farrell also talked about the amount of make-up and prosthetics he had to apply because of his character and that the result made him almost entirely unrecognizable. The "Total Recall" actor appeared on Collider and spoke on how effective the look was.

He went "for a drive" to a local Starbucks, fully dressed as the villain. Farrell said, "The first day we tried the whole thing out, we took it for a drive — a spin, metaphorically speaking. We did it in Burbank. It took about six or eight hours. It was a team of 10 or 15 people. And it was really fun."

The actor continued, "I went into Starbucks and ordered myself a very un-Oswald drink, an oat milk latte with two stevia sweeteners. I got a couple of stares, but only because it's such an imposing look. [Designer] Mike Marino did so much of the work for me on this, so much of the heavy lifting."