Why Isn't Robert Pattinson's Batman In The Penguin?

Warning: this article contains minor spoilers for the first episode of The Penguin! Check out IGN’s spoiler-free review for the new series . The first episode of The Penguin has arrived on HBO, and there’s one character who’s conspicuous by his absence. Robert Pattinson’s Batman is nowhere to be seen, despite the series taking place in the immediate aftermath of 2022’s The Batman.

And if star Colin Farrell is to be believed, we won’t be seeing the Dark Knight at all in this series. “This story takes place over five or six weeks, so it seemed to make sense to the creatives, to Matt [Reeves] and to Lauren [LeFranc], that he didn't need to appear in this,” Farrell told IGN in a new roundtable interview with the show’s cast. “And it's a very different side of Gotham, as well.

Not that Batman doesn't get his hands dirty in the shadows, of course, but it's a very, very different part of Gotham that I've never seen before. It's really the underbelly of the city and it's down in the gutter.” How can a Batman series get away with not featuring Batman, especially when one of his most memorable villains is the star of the show? Where is the Caped Crusader right now, anyway? Here’s what we know about Batman’s whereabouts after the first episode.

As much as it might seem silly to do a spinoff of The Batman without Pattinson’s Batman, Farrell’s comments make sense. This series explores a very different corner of Gotham City from the one Batman inhabits. Litera.