The Penguin sets up an obvious villain for The Batman: Part II (and it's not Oz)

The credits have rolled on Lauren LeFranc’s The Penguin, and after eight episodes of murder, mobsters, and ‘ma,’ Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) has waddled his way to the top of Gotham City’s slippery crime ladder. Although The Penguin was always tipped to be a one-and-done miniseries, there’s already talk of a potential season 2. While LeFranc, Farrell, and The Batman director Matt Reeves mull over the idea, at least fans know Cobb is locked in to appear in The Batman: Part II, which will come out in theaters in 2026.

As a sequel to 2022’s The Batman, Part II will pick up directly after the events of The Penguin and make the most of the show’s winter setting. With this, there’s been obvious talk about Mr. Freeze stepping up as the movie’s big bad, with Reeves having previously said he’d be interested in a "grounded" version of the character. The Penguin also gave potential teases of Clayface, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and more, but it seems some might’ve missed a major villain waiting in the wings.

Court is in session

Among all the subtle hints and world-building hiding in the background of The Penguin, fans are convinced that Reeves and LeFranc have subtly teased the Court of Owls. Unlike the tried-and-tested villains we’ve seen a million times like the Joker, the Riddler, and the Penguin, the Court of Owls was created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo for 2012’s Batman #6. This secret society is made up of some of Gotham City’s wealthiest residents, pulling the strings from behind the curtain.

Aside from the main Court, the shady cabal has a group of assassins known as Talons that carry out their dirty work. More recently, the Court of Owls has spread its influence beyond the confines of Gotham City and become a worldwide entity known as the Parliament of Owls. Once considered an urban legend, Bruce Wayne stumbles across the Court of Owls in the comics and even suspects that they had something to do with the death of his parents. The mystery behind the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne wasn’t solved in The Batman, meaning it’s one way to potentially weave the Court of Owls into Part II. The Court of Owls can even resurrect dead Talons with a special serum (remember that green vial Batman injected himself with at the end of The Batman?), so it would be interesting to see Reeves’ take on that particular arc.

The Court of Owls is yet to appear in a Batman movie but has previously been featured in the TV shows Gotham and Gotham Knights, as well as being a major part of Warner Bros. Montreal’s Gotham Knights video game. Eagle-eyed Bat-fans watching The Penguin noted how the curtains in Gotham’s town hall seemingly made the outline of an owl in the finale. Combining the potential outline of an owl shape and the idea of a courtroom is a tenuous link, but it’s not the only hint that the Court of Owls is in session. Others have pointed to one of the Riddler’s calling cards featuring an owl in The Batman, while Peter Saarsgard’s corrupt Gil Colson said that someone was watching, adding: “It's so much bigger than you could ever imagine. It's the whole system!”

Taking flight

The Bat-Signal at the end of The Penguin shows that something has called the MIA Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) back into action, and with Oz dancing the night away in his penthouse, the implication is that something major is going on elsewhere. Given how The Penguin made references to the civil unrest in the city and how the richest areas were saved while poorer districts like Crown Point were flooded, it would be on brand to have the Court of Owls operating as the city’s elite strive to get richer on the backs of ordinary citizens.

The idea that something is keeping the delicate balance of Gotham's crime intact makes a lot of sense, and it's clear some dodgy dealings went down with the Waynes back in the day. Others have taken the theory further and suggested that mayor-elect Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) could be a member of the Court. If not, it’s possible that she’ll be inducted into the Court of Owls or be puppeteered by them during the events of The Batman: Part II. As for Oz, the fact that he’s taken out the Falcone, Maroni, and Gigante crime families to sit atop his pyramid means that he could be firmly in the Court of Owls crosshairs. Farrell told The Hollywood Reporter he’s in about "five or six" scenes in The Batman: Part II, also suggesting he's signed on for three movies. That basically counts him out as the big bad of Part II, but the Court of Owls could serve in his stead.

Reeves himself has stayed quiet on the possibility that the Court of Owls will spread their wings, and when Showsha asked if they’ll be the big bad of Part II, he simply said: “We can't comment on the movie because we are doing the movie and then you'd know what movie we're doing and we're not going to say that yet.” This comes off the back of Pattinson throwing his own theories into the ring during a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair. Responding to the theory that Thomas and Martha were leaders of the Court, Pattinson mused: “If they disappear and kind of secretly running it, that would really be a very difficult thing for Bruce to handle, oh it'd be a nightmare. I was definitely kind of thinking that Court of Owls is probably going to be in the sequel, definitely seems like... I mean, I'm literally just guessing."

More than being some one-off villain that Batman can easily best, the Court of Owls has been an influential power shaping the history and future of Gotham. The Batman already showed that although the Riddler (Paul Dano) wasn’t hard to bring down, his ideas spread to become a much more dangerous entity. Even in The Penguin, signs of the Riddler’s influence are still being felt. Imagine if the Court of Owls is an organization that’s been building in the dark for centuries. As for the idea of Thomas and Martha somehow still being alive and leading the Court of Owls, as some fans are speculating, let’s stick a pin in that one. If that is the big twist, let's hope Reeves can pull it off better than Richard Parker still being alive in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

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