As one of the studio’s two most profitable and lucrative active franchises alongside the Wizarding World, it wasn’t a shock that DC-related content was quickly positioned to be one of the major selling points for HBO Max. After all, J.K. Rowling’s literary phenomenon is wrapped up with the Fantastic Beasts series for a while yet, leaving the door wide open for the roster of superhero properties to swoop in and become an integral part of WarnerMedia’s big and small screen futures.
Sixteen of WB’s twenty highest-grossing movies in history are either based on DC characters or Rowling’s novels, so we could be facing an onslaught of comic book content over the next few years. Wonder Woman 1984 pulled in big numbers, the hype is building around the Snyder Cut of Justice League and John Cena’s The Suicide Squad spinoff has already started production, so things are well and truly in motion for the surging streaming platform.
DC Films president Walter Hamada recently confirmed that the franchise will look to debut two HBO Max exclusives on an annual basis as well that will focus on names that exist just below the top-tier characters, and one potential candidate may have surged to the head of the pack after we heard from our sources – the same ones that told us Ben Affleck would be back as the Dark Knight in The Flash long before it was confirmed – that Colin Farrell’s Penguin isn’t only expected to return for a sequel to The Batman, but he could get his own spinoff as well.
We know that Matt Reeves’ reboot will find Oswald Cobblepot in the formative years of building his criminal empire, and if his spin on the fan favorite villain goes down a storm with audiences, then a Godfather-esque crime saga with Penguin at the center is the sort of intriguing and out-of-the-box original project that HBO Max could theoretically thrive on.