A Major Villain Easter Egg from ‘The Penguin’ Was Just Confirmed

The Penguin ended this week on a high note as the final episode of the series was among the best. The story of how The Penguin rose to power is now over and we are looking forward to seeing what Matt Reeves has in store for us for The Batman: Part II, which is going to start filming next year.

While the series has been analyzed over and over, with many fans noticing the changes from the comics as well as the major and minor Easter Eggs present in the series, it seems that there was one Easter Egg that we’ve missed, but that could prove to be very, very important.

Namely, this was noticed by one of the fans and then posted on X, and based on the scene in question, it seems that we’ve missed a major villain Easter Egg from the series. An Easter Egg with an important story behind it!

We know that The Penguin is the only major member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery to appear in the series. The Riddler is mentioned, Vic turns out to be an insignificant character, and while the Falcone and Maroni families made appearances, their storylines have largely concluded.

The mafia has never truly been the central focus of Batman’s rogues, though the Falcone family remains one of Gotham’s most notorious.

Knowing this, please read the following post:

WOW 🎃 Someone sent me this reddit post, and it shows an Arkham-esque inspired Scarecrow glove, and what appears to be a Scarecrow mask in Julian Rush's office.

I was told by a source a long while back that originally on the production details that Theo Rossi was written as… pic.twitter.com/yYrVBa83Zf

— BobaTalks (@BobaTalks) November 15, 2024

So, as you can see in the images here, there is a glove with needles, as well as a menacing mask, which is a clear reference to one of Batman’s most dangerous and enduring villains – Jonathan Crane, a.k.a. Scarecrow.

Now, while Crane doesn’t seem to have appeared in the series (Dr. Ventris does appear, but he is not Scarecrow), there is a story behind this, as the tweet reveals.

Namely, it turns out that the character we know as Julian was initially supposed to be Jonathan Crane, and that he was written as such in the original versions of the screenplay.

It seems that Lauren LeFranc really did intend to include the Scarecrow, although we don’t believe that the transition would have been made. How, when, and why this was changed is unknown at this moment, but it seems that Reeves and LeFranc gave up on the idea.

It is possible that this was just a ruse, i.e., that Julian is just a false name that Jonathan Crane uses, as the character is notably absent from the final moments of the series. This means that we could see the character later in the franchise, which would be interesting, especially since Scarecrow was not one of the villains mentioned in the rumors that mentioned Mr. Freeze, Professor Pyg, and even Clayface.

On the other hand, the fact that this was ultimately changed might mean exactly that – that Reeves won’t be using it. Had Jonathan Crane debuted in the series, it would have been a major “burden” for Reeves. Scarecrow is a major character and not just someone you can mention by name and then never speak of him again.

If Reeves doesn’t want to introduce Scarecrow (just yet), then it is highly possible that he told LeFranc to remove the character ultimately.

At this point, we don’t know what happened save for the fact that Crane officially doesn’t appear in the series. Kudos to the fan who noticed this and we can only wait and see what will happen in the future, i.e., if these two references were just accidental or intentional. It could be that Julian is somehow related to Jonathan Crane, but that is also a theory we know nothing about at this point.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

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