The Batman in 2022 gave us our first glimpse at Matt Reeves’ version of Gotham City. While not the first “realistic” version of the fictional comic book city, though arguably more in line with a lot of more comic-booky Batman aesthetics, The Batman perfectly thread the line between grounded and fantastical. It’s not The Dark Knight, but it’s also not Batman & Robin. Because of that, several of the sillier elements had to change to fit better. Some of those are the names of characters. Chief among them, the Penguin (Colin Farrell). In the movie, we learn he goes by “Oz,” and the series The Penguin confirms his name is not Oswald Cobblepot.
The series changes the name Oswald Cobblepot to Oswald “Oz” Cobb. Small change, but bigger ramifications. In the comic, Oswald Cobblepot is a criminal in the vein of high-society wannabe. He’s the black sheep of a decidedly white sheep family. That really doesn’t fit The Batman‘s version of the character one bit, a mafia enforcer who fancies himself a bigshot. Similar vibe, wildly different execution. So the easy answer is, “Oswald Cobblepot” is a silly name.
Speaking to SFX ( via GameSpot), The Penguin producer Dylan Clark explains the change further. “[DC] never got around to changing his name in the comics like they did with the Riddler, going from Edward Nigma [or Nygma] to Edward Nashton, from an unreal name to a real name.” This, of course, is true. In the comics, we learn Edward Nygma was a retrofitted pseudonym for Edward Nashton once he took on the persona of the Riddler.
“We had a lot of conversations with DC Comics and with Jim Lee [President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics],” Clark continued. “They had thought about changing his name at some point but had never done it. Matt asked, ‘Can I call our character Oz Cobb?’ And Jim said, ‘Absolutely!’ So we got a blessing from the king himself. That small change of the name allowed us to look at this character in a grounded way.”
Boy, they are really worried about a story where a guy dresses up like a bat feeling grounded. Ah well, it is what it is. Oz Cobb does fit the character better, somehow, so maybe they had the right idea.
The Penguin premieres September 19 on HBO.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.