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Batman: Caped Crusader Star Minnie Driver Finally Opens Up About Hero Controversial Role
The 2024 animated series introduced a risky change for one of its iconic Gotham antagonists. Comic fans are agitated by Oscar-nominated Minnie Driver as she voiced the female version of Penguin.
DC fans rejoice as Bruce Timm’s latest, Batman: Caped Crusader premiered at the tip of the month on August 1. While die-hard fans usually embrace all and any spins of The Dark Knight, animated or live-action, we can’t be sure of it for the villains.
The 2024 animated series introduced a risky change for one of its iconic Gotham antagonists, not Joker, that left the comic fans fuming. Oscar-nominated Minnie Driver voiced Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin in a reimagined female version of Batman’s second-most deadly arch-nemesis in Batman: Caped Crusader.
Simultaneously, her part in the Batman series vaulted into a controversy as fans retorted with woke remarks, much like what Erick Kipke’s The Boys endured recently. Addressing the backlash, Minnie Driver, 54, opened up about the quirks of her iconic villain role as Penguin at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.
The Hollywood star explained her version of the Penguin as “properly evil” as the original with creator Bruce Timm’s sinister spin on the character. She also elaborated on how her Penguin is a part-time cabaret singer with Mae-West burlesque undertones that perfectly fit with the character’s wickedness.
“She skims the depths of human depravity in what she does. She's also a rather larger-than-life kind of burlesque cabaret singer in her spare time. It's strange and beautiful and oddly fitting,” Driver told Collider at SDCC 2024.
However, the Good Will Hunting star, who embodies the first female Penguin, hopes that the fans can look past the gender disparity of the revered nemesis in Batman: Caped Crusader to realize that the character, male or female, stays true to its essence.
Noting the significance of her character, Driver added, “The Penguin is an essence in the way that Batman is an essence, in the way Doctor Who is an essence. They constantly regenerate and are voiced and acted by lots of different people.” Furthermore, she went on to praise the casting choices for Bruce Timm’s take on Batman, as has been the history with this superhero franchise.
In the evolving times, showmakers are likely to try and introduce fresh takes on fan-favorite characters that have existed for decades, such as Batman which first surfaced in comics around the ‘80s.
Hence, Minnie Driver’s version of Penguin is, if not anything, a peek into the pool of alternate possibilities in Batman mythology, and an open-minded approach from the fans should propel the DC universe to new heights.
Batman: Caped Crusader is the third spinoff in the Batman animated franchise, and follows 2008’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series. Essentially, Bruce Timm pioneered the animated Batman franchise, which has now derived stellar ratings despite much critique from sensitive fans.
Meanwhile, HBO is working on a live-action spinoff series of Robert Pattinson’s The Batman called The Penguin. It stars Colin Farell as the titular character as the show will seemingly explore the character arc of the coveted Batman villain who wreaked havoc in the 2022 film helmed by director Matt Reeves.
The Penguin is set to premiere on September 8, 2024, and Batman: Caped Crusader is streaming on Prime Video.
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