A Huge Villain Easter Egg in ‘The Penguin’ Was Just Confirmed

The Penguin wrapped up this week with a bang, delivering one of the strongest episodes of the series. With the story of Penguin’s rise to power now complete, we’re eagerly anticipating what Matt Reeves has in store for The Batman: Part II, which is set to begin filming next year.

While the series has been dissected by fans, with many pointing out the differences from the comics and identifying both major and minor Easter eggs, it seems we may have missed one that could be incredibly significant.

A keen-eyed fan recently spotted an Easter egg, and shared it on X, and it appears to reference a major villain from the series—one with a storyline that could play a crucial role in future developments!

The Penguin is the only major member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery featured prominently in the series.

While the Riddler is mentioned and Vic didn’t turn out to be a significant character, the Falcone and Maroni families made appearances but have largely wrapped up their storylines. The mafia, while notable, has never truly been the central focus of Batman’s villains, though the Falcone family certainly holds a notorious place in Gotham’s history.

With that context in mind, take a look at the following post:

WOW 🎃 Someone sent me this reddit post, and it shows an Arkham-esque inspired Scarecrow glove, and what appears to be a Scarecrow mask in Julian Rush's office.

I was told by a source a long while back that originally on the production details that Theo Rossi was written as… pic.twitter.com/yYrVBa83Zf

— BobaTalks (@BobaTalks) November 15, 2024

As you can see in the images, there’s a glove with needles and a menacing mask—clear references to one of Batman’s most dangerous and iconic villains, Jonathan Crane, a.k.a. Scarecrow. Although Crane doesn’t appear in the series (Dr. Ventris does, but he’s not Scarecrow), there’s an interesting backstory behind this, as revealed in the tweet.

It turns out that the character we know as Julian was originally intended to be Jonathan Crane, with early versions of the screenplay written to include him. Lauren LeFranc had plans to feature the Scarecrow, but it seems the idea was ultimately scrapped.

The reasons behind this change, including how and when it happened, remain unclear, but it appears that both Reeves and LeFranc decided to abandon the character for the series.

It’s possible that Julian is simply a false identity used by Jonathan Crane, especially since the character is notably absent from the final moments of the series. This could leave the door open for Crane to appear later in the franchise, which would be intriguing—especially since Scarecrow wasn’t mentioned in any of the rumors alongside villains like Mr. Freeze, Professor Pyg, and Clayface.

On the other hand, the decision to remove Crane could signal that Reeves doesn’t plan to use him. Introducing Jonathan Crane would have been a significant move for Reeves, as Scarecrow is a key villain, not someone who can be casually referenced and then forgotten.

If Reeves wasn’t ready to bring Scarecrow into the story, it’s likely he asked LeFranc to cut the character from the final version.

At this point, we can only speculate—what we do know for sure is that Crane doesn’t appear in the series. Kudos to the fan who noticed these details, and we’ll have to wait and see if the references were accidental or intentional. It’s possible Julian is connected to Jonathan Crane, but that’s a theory we can’t confirm just yet.

Got any thoughts to share? Let us know in the comments below!

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