“It’s Astounding”: ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Introduces a Female Penguin “Oswalda”

‘Batman: Caped Crusader,’ initially announced as an HBO Max series in 2021, found a new home on Amazon Prime Video after HBO passed on the project.

Scheduled for release in a few days, the show offers a completely fresh take on Batman and his supporting characters and villains. Creators Bruce Timm and character designer James Tucker emphasized their goal to avoid replicating ‘Batman: The Animated Series.’ To achieve this, they set the new show as a true period piece in the 1940s, departing from the anachronistic mix of technologies seen in TAS.

It was previously announced that the show’s version of Harley Quinn would be Asian, and now it appears the Penguin will be gender-swapped. This new version of the Penguin, named Oswalda (….really?), will be voiced by Minnie Driver.

During the Saturday San Diego Comic-Con panel, executive producer Bruce Timm welcomed fans with a video message before the world premiere screening of the first episode of the highly anticipated show. The episode featured the debut of Driver’s Penguin.

Driver acknowledged that some purists might have difficulty connecting with the new version of the Penguin but assured fans that the character’s essence remains intact.

If we’re lucky enough to be invited onto the stage to inhabit these characters that already exist in the ether, we just sort of rise up to meet them. And this was such a beautiful retelling of that villain. It was joyful. And, I mean, she’s dreadful.

The reactions were predominantly negative.