Matt Reeves reveals why he passed on directing The Penguin spinoff

The Batman 2’s Matt Reeves has revealed why he decided not to have any involvement in directing the franchise’s spinoff The Penguin.

Set one week after the events shown in 2022’s The Batman, the new TV show will follow Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot / The Penguin‘s rise to becoming one of the most powerful figures in the city’s underworld.

Because the show is so closely tied in to The Batman movie, many fans believed director Matt Reeves would be taking lead as showrunner on some episodes.

But Reeves actually passed on sitting in the show’s director chair, telling Collider, “The thing is that I really wanted to except that first of all, when we first began, we were actually in post and then, in post on The Batman, that’s actually where this all started. And then as things started we had the strike, we had lots of different stuff. And then we realized that it would put us in conflict with finishing the [Batman 2] script.”

He continued, ” And so there was a point where we realized, given what I needed to do for The Batman 2, what I needed to do on the show, I really couldn’t be also directing, it just didn’t work out on this time. But you know what, who knows what would happen in the future, you know? Everything ultimately comes down to schedule.”

Reeves stressed that, on top of scheduling, he’s someone who can’t focus on any other project except the one he’s currently directing, so “it would squeeze out everything else.”

Despite not taking the reins when it comes to directing, Reeves was still heavily involved in The Penguin. He revealed the mobster would be playing a crucial role in the Batman trilogy the director hopes to create.

“When we came up with the idea to do The Penguin, that was something where I had always intended to continue Penguin’s story, and wanted to tell this story of his beginning of rise to power,” Reeves explained to Deadline. “And so, that was deliberate because I wanted— whereas it wasn’t Batman’s origin story, I wanted the origin stories of these other characters, of the Rogues Gallery and that story was originally going to be the entrée into the next movie.”

The director also confirmed Colin Farrell will be a part of The Batman 2, adding that his mobster character will act as the “entry point” to the sequel and fans will be able to see how his story is “absolutely connected to where we leave things in the series.”

For more comic book media, check out our list of the best superhero movies of all time and our guide to the best superhero TV shows ever.