The Batman director finally explains why Bruce Wayne doesn't intervene in The Penguin

The Penguin, HBO's new TV show about Batman's third or fourth biggest enemy, wrapped up this past Sunday, and by and large the fan response has been rapturous. We watched Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) shed what was left of his soul as he climbed the criminal ladder in Gotham City and we loved every minute of it. It looks like everyone else did, too, as Samba TV reports that the show was at the top of the streaming for its entire eight-episode run.

The Penguin was so good that we didn't even care that Batman himself never showed up. The show is set in the same world as the 2022 film The Batman, where Bruce Wayne is played by Robert Pattinson. That filmed ended with the Riddler (Paul Dano) blowing up a sea wall in Gotham and flooding a poor part of the city, which resulted in a humanitarian crises. As The Penguin went on, some fans wondered why Batman wasn't intervening in the increasingly violent gang war between Oz and his rival Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). According to The Batman director Matt Reeves, he had too much else on his place.

"This was a time of great turmoil in the city, it's literally the week after what happened," Reeves told Digital Spy. "Much of the city is in desperation, so police can't get everywhere, there's crime everywhere, it's a very, very dangerous time. [Batman’s] out there trying to grapple with the aftermath of everything that happened, which to some degree he blames himself for."

Watching The Penguin, it could be easy to forget that the whole story starts up just a week after the end of The Batman, so it makes some sense that the Caped Crusader would be distracted. He's onto Oz by the end, though; the final shot is of the Bat Signal lighting up the cloudy night sky, so we can expect a reckoning on the way in The Batman: Part II, which is scheduled to come out in theaters in 2026.

Speaking of Part II, Reeves said that Bruce Wayne will find it "very hard to be Batman" going forward. I doubt Oz is going to make it any easier.

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