Warner Bros.’ handling of Batman’s rogues gallery came into focus this week after Margot Robbie revealed that early drafts of Birds of Prey positioned the Penguin as the film’s main antagonist before the character was pulled for Matt Reeves’ separate Bat-verse.
In a joint interview promoting A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Robbie told co-star Colin Farrell that “the first draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of Birds of Prey, the villain was the Penguin,” adding that Reeves asked them not to use him because he planned to deploy the character in his own project. The role in Birds of Prey ultimately went to Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor.
Robbie’s account offers a rare window into the coordination that can occur when parallel DC screen universes are in play. Birds of Prey, released in 2020, centered on Harley Quinn after her split from the Joker; the switch in villains meant the film’s crime-boss storyline proceeded without a crossover opportunity that would later define Reeves’ Gotham. Farrell, who portrays Oswald Cobblepot in that continuity, reacted with surprise in the interview and even asked Robbie if he could read Hodson’s earlier draft.
The director’s request set the stage for Penguin’s subsequent rise elsewhere: Farrell’s take debuted in 2022’s The Batman and returned in the 2024 HBO series The Penguin, which tracks Cobblepot’s ascent in Gotham’s underworld and is positioned as connective tissue to the next theatrical chapter. With The Batman Part II dated for 2027, comments from talent and show creatives in recent months have reinforced that Reeves’ Bat-verse is being curated on its own track, separate from DC Studios’ mainline slate.
