DC's The Penguin Series Casts Clancy Brown As Mob Boss Salvatore Maroni
This article contains spoilers for "The Batman."
A mob boss whose name was whispered throughout Matt Reeves' "The Batman" will finally come into the light in HBO Max's new series "The Penguin," and he'll be played by a character actor who's a perfect fit for the part. Clancy Brown has played villain-types in everything from "Dexter: New Blood" to "Daredevil" to "The Mandalorian," and is now on board as Salvatore Maroni, per Variety.
Maroni is a mob boss who's appeared in DC comics since way back in the 1940s, with Eric Roberts playing him as a spiffy, smug gangster in "The Dark Knight" and David Zayas taking on the role in "Gotham." In last year's Robert Pattinson-led Batman film, audiences and the caped crusader get word that Sal Maroni was busted in what turns out to be a setup manufactured by John Turturro's Carmine Falcone, the creep who turned out to be Catwoman's dad and, potentially, the man who signed off on the Wayne family's killing. In some storylines, Maroni is poised to become an even bigger underworld bigwig than Falcone, and he's certainly an intimidating presence throughout the Batman comics.
This isn't the actor's first dance with DC
Clancy Brown is a great pick for Maroni, not just because he can easily give the often calmly sinister performance required of a crime lord, but because he has a long history with DC as well. Brown has voiced Lex Luthor in several animated DC projects, including "Superman: The Animated Series." He also appeared in the CW's DC-related series "The Flash," playing a military general named Wade Eiling who ended up mind-controlled by the gorilla villain Grodd. But as the disparate DC worlds including the now-ended Arrowverse are due to collapse in on each other and be reborn under James Gunn and Peter Safran, there's no reason for Brown not to take on a new role in the DC Universe.
DCU fans shouldn't get too hung up on Clancy's place in the franchise regardless, as Pattinson's Batman may turn out to be part of the DC Elseworlds, which are projects that don't directly tie into the franchise's ongoing storyline. Variety reports that "The Penguin" will likely take place after "The Batman," continuing the story of Colin Farrell's Penguin, AKA Oswald Cobblepot. It will co-star the brilliant "Palm Springs" and "Made For Love" actress Cristin Milioti as Carmine's daughter Sofia. Additionally, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Deirdre O'Connell are also set to co-star.
"The Penguin" has an eight-episode order at HBO Max, and Lauren LeFranc is showrunning and executive producing with Reeves also on board as an exec producer. The series does not have a release date as of publication.