The Penguin's appeal as a spin-off of The Batman has been perfectly summed up by an HBO-centric meme. Since the ending of The Batman, audiences have waited with bated breath for the next installment in Matt Reeves' Elseworlds franchise. The wait for The Batman Part II's story will go on a little longer, but it will be made easier thanks to the spin-off TV show The Penguin. The show already has an appeal, thanks to the incredibly talented cast of The Penguin, yet an internet meme has summed up the anticipation for the upcoming DC TV installment perfectly.
The meme was posted on Twitter/X by timeimmemorial_ and uses the common template of Mad Men's Don Draper pitching an idea on a whiteboard. This time, the pitch idea is notably DC-related as the board reads "Tony Soprano, but he's a penguin."
This meme is playing off of the tone established by The Penguin's marketing thus far. The trailers, combined with comments from the cast and creators, prove that the show is following the style of a mobster/mafia TV show. One of the most popular examples of this type of show is HBO's The Sopranos, hence the connection the meme makes between Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobblebot and Tony Soprano. A reply to the original tweet uses another meme of Leonardo DiCaprio's line from Django Unchained: "You had my curiosity, now you have my attention."
Why HBO Is The Perfect Network To Air The Penguin
The Penguin Has A Good Home
More so than anything, this meme proves how perfect HBO is for The Penguin. Since the era of quality TV began, HBO has been a trendsetter regarding networks and studios. HBO has become synonymous with exceptional TV shows that push the boundaries of what is possible on the small screen, not only through huge, big-budgeted, cinematic TV shows like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, but also through intimate, exceptionally written character dramas like Succession, Big Little Lies, True Detective, and The Wire, to name only a small handful.
Of course, linking to The Penguin, The Sopranos is one such example of HBO's track record of prestige TV. With the former, everything that makes HBO shows so great could be utilized. Given that The Penguin exists in the world of The Batman, the high budgets and extreme cinematic quality of HBO productions can be put to good use through the conveying of otherworldly, comic book elements. On the flip side, the writing and production quality that makes smaller shows so engrossing fits the mobster style of The Penguin too.
Matt Reeves initially had ideas for two other TV spin-offs of The Batman, proving how good the union is between this universe and HBO.
All of this just goes to prove how perfect HBO is for the future of Matt Reeves' Batman saga on the small screen. The Batman already proved that it was different from other iterations of the Caped Crusader by being more grounded, with HBO fitting that grounded tone well. With The Penguin expected to continue this on an even greater scale by focusing on the less farfetched, mafia side of The Batman's world, it could join the long line of prestige TV shows on HBO.
