"What we are looking at is the essence of the original comics and animation."
Minnie Driver has opened up about taking on the role of a female incarnation of the Penguin in Batman: Caped Crusader.
It was announced back in July that Driver would be voicing Oswalda Cobblepot, a gender-flipped version of the character, in Prime Video’s new animated series, with some fans immediately taking issue with the reimagining.
But now Driver has spoken out about why she believes the female version of the beloved comic character hasn't been shoehorned into the new series – and that the Penguin has always been "genderless".
Speaking to press at a roundtable during SDCC 2024 (via GamesRadar+), she said of Oswalda: "She's a very new character that so fits into the Batman oeuvre - it's a great reimagining."
She continued: "It's amazing as a lot of times today we are trying to redress the balance of representation, and you sometimes feel that things have been shoehorned in - it's more performative than organic.
"This is organic - it's believable that this bizarre, strange, larger-than-life character is genderless because it's the essence of the Penguin.
"What we are looking at is the essence of the original comics and animation. When you look at her, she's weirdly genderless, she's a creature, and I love that that's what we are exploring now."
The show, coming to our screens courtesy of Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm, brings the titular character back to his roots in a noir-style detective story.
Alongside Driver, the voice cast also includes Hamish Linklater as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Christina Ricci as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Jamie Chung as Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel, Diedrich Bader as Two-Face/Harvey Dent and more.
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Batman: Caped Crusader is available to stream on Prime Video.
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Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
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