TIP OF THE ICEBERG

TRACING OZ COBB'S SPECTACULARLY VIOLENT RISE TO POWER FROM THE ICEBERG LOUNGE OWNER TO GOTHAM'S KINGPIN, HBO'S PRESTIGE SHOW THE PENGUIN KNITS TOGETHER THE BATMAN AND THE PIPELINED THE BATMAN PART II. TOTAL FILM HUDDLES WITH EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MATT REEVES, STAR COLIN FARRELL, SHOWRUNNER LAUREN LEFRANC AND MORE TO EXPLORE GOTHAM'S DARKEST - AND DEEPEST - CHAPTER YET.

- JAMIE GRAHAM

At the end of Matt Reeves' 2022 epic The Batman, as Paul Dano's Riddler resides in Arkham State Hospital, Gotham sits underwater and John Turturro's crime lord Carmine Falcone lies in the morgue, Zoë Kravitz's Selina Kyle turns to Robert Pattinson's Batman and says, 'There's gonna be a power grab. It'll be bloody.' She's not wrong, though just how bloody - and dark, and twisted, and just plain wrong in the head - not even she could have predicted, nor how complex. By the time The Batman Part II swoops into cinemas in October 2026, it'll all be sorted, the power vacuum plugged ready for attention to swing back to Batman and whatever new villain(s) he has to contend with. But if you want to know just how it gets plugged (and trust us, you do), then eight-part HBO show The Penguin is your ringside seat.

Starting a week after the cataclysmic conclusion of The Batman and ending a week before The Batman Part II gets under way, The Penguin tracks Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobb as he embarks on a Scarface-like rise to become kingpin. In The Batman, Cobb, lieutenant of Carmine Falcone and manager of The Iceberg Lounge in which cops and politicos hang out with underworld figures, is only in a few scenes, but, boy, did he make an impression.