MOVIE NEWS – Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe presents a grounded and realistic take on the often eccentric DC Comics world. The new HBO spin-off series, The Penguin, expands upon Reeves’ movie and explores a different part of Gotham City. Interestingly, in order to stick to Reeves’ vision, two iconic items were (almost) entirely banned from the set.

In The Penguin, Colin Farrell’s villainous character steps out of the shadows from The Batman and takes the lead in his own series. With heavy makeup and scars, Farrell’s portrayal of the character is a far cry from Danny DeVito’s version in Batman Returns or Burgess Meredith’s performance in the 1960s Batman series. As a result, Matt Reeves and showrunner Lauren LeFranc banned two iconic items typically associated with the character from the set.

In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, production designer Kalina Ivanov explained the design process behind building Gotham City for The Penguin. Ivanov revealed that umbrellas and birds were banned from the set to detach the character from his more cartoonish comic-book counterpart. Ivanov stated:

“We had a mandate not to use umbrellas, so there are no umbrellas on the set. And then we were also under mandate of not using birds, in the pattern, in the wallpaper or anything like that.”

However, Ivanov and her team were granted one exception, hiding some penguin-inspired designs in a certain set (though we won’t spoil where exactly). The birds are just one of the many Easter eggs Ivanov and her team placed across The Penguin‘s various sets.

Source: MovieWeb