‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Will Have a Female Penguin: “Some people gonna be pissed”

‘Batman: Caped Crusader,’ initially announced as an HBO Max series in 2021, found a home on Amazon Prime Video after HBO passed on the project.

The show is scheduled for release in a few days and it’s a completely new take on Batman and his supporting characters (and villains). The creators, Timm and character designer James Tucker, emphasized their top priority was to avoid replicating ‘Batman: The Animated Series’. To achieve this, they opted to make the new show a true period piece set in the 1940s, departing from the anachronistic mix of technologies seen in TAS.

A while ago, it was announced that the show’s version of Harley Quinn would be Asian, and now apparently the Penguin will be genderswapped. This version of the Penguin will be called Oswalda (really, that’s what you come up with?) and will be voiced by Minnie Driver.

During the Saturday San Diego Comic-Con panel, executive producer Bruce Timm welcomed fans with a video message before the world premiere screening of the first episode of the highly anticipated show. The episode featured the debut of Driver’s Penguin.

Driver explained that she realizes that some purists will have trouble connecting with the new Penguin but she assures fans that the essence of the character still remains:

If we’re lucky enough to be invited onto the stage to inhabit these characters that already exist in the ether, we just sort of rise up to meet them. And this was such a beautiful retelling of that villain. It was joyful. And, I mean, she’s dreadful.

The reactions were mostly negative:

‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ and “Oswalda” arrive at Amazon Prime Video on August 1. Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

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