Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot
It seems Batman’s rogues gallery has the best origin stories that make them the most interesting. Oswald Cobblepot is another character who can receive the Joker treatment.
There are plenty of stories that can be used for him, but the general gist is focusing on bullying and his rise through the underworld of Gotham City.
Oswald Cobblepot has several versions of his past. One of them sees him come from a wealthy family who are overtaken by the Wayne family as Gotham’s wealthiest. This happens because the Wayne’s expose the criminal dealings within the Cobblepot’s business.
This makes Oswald have a grudge toward the Wayne family but using it for the movie makes it too similar to Joker.
Another origin focuses on Oswald being abandoned by his parents due to a psychical deformity. It makes him look more like a Penguin than a man, and it doesn’t help he also limps. This is where the bullying comes in.
Since Oswald looks deformed, it shows the cruel side of humanity. This is something shown in Batman Returns and it can be explored more through this movie.
In the movie, Oswald is brought into a famous Gotham crime family but quickly finds out it’s them taking pity on him. He stays with them but soon enough learns his way to manipulate them to go to war with another crime family. Say it’s the Falcone’s versus the Maroni’s.
Oswald then uses the destruction caused by both families to take over their patch.
It’ll see the rise of Oswald, and the corruption of his soul. It would be similar to Scarface in that Oswald becomes more corrupt as he gains more power. As for him working two sides against the other, it’s sort of like Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.
It seems a weird choice but Lex Luthor’s goal was manipulating Batman and Superman into defeating each other. That is similar to what Oswald’s goal would be in the movie.
Interestingly a similar story plays out in Season One and Two of Gotham with Oswald Cobblepot playing people so he can become the Kingpin of Gotham. As for who could play this version of Oswald Cobblepot depends on the age he’d be.
If this is a Cobblepot in his late 20s and early 30s building his way up then somebody like Dane DeHaan could pull it off. It’s true he’s a lot thinner than the known Oswald but he can put the weight on or use a fat suit. There are some iterations of Oswald where he’s thin, so either way, it works.
