Who played the best onscreen Penguin in a Batman movie? Danny DeVito thinks it’s him, and I’m not gonna argue.
No superhero has a rogue’s gallery as famous as Batman’s. The Joker has been played by too many actors to count over the years, from Jack Nicholson to Mark Hamill to Heath Ledger to whoever plays him in the inevitable sequel to The Batman. The Penguin hasn’t been quite as popular, but he’s still gotten plenty of screen time. Burgess Meredith played him in the campy 1960s Batman show, Danny DeVito played him in 1992’s Batman Returns, and Colin Farrell played him earlier this year in The Batman.
But who played him best? Well, if you ask me, it’s DeVito. Batman Returns is pretty off the chain:
And wouldn’t you know it? DeVito agrees with me! He said as much when he was hooked up to a lie detector for Vanity Fair. He was shown a picture of Farrell and asked, “What about this Penguin?” And then the truth came out!
"Who, Colin? I love Colin. He’s a terrific guy. My Penguin was better…In my opinion."
No lies detected, literally.
With revivals happening left and right these days, who’s to say that DeVito couldn’t come back as Penguin at some point? Until then, we can look forward to The Batman 2. There’s no release date yet but you can rest assured that Warner Bros. Discovery is working on it; the first movie was a big hit for them.
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