Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for The Penguin episode 2DC has finally revealed exactly when Robert Pattinson’s The Batman and its version of Gotham is set. Thanks to The Penguin starring Colin Farrell’s return as Oswald “Oz” Cobb, the new Max series has confirmed the specific date of the events of The Batman, taking place in its immediate aftermath one week later. Now, the new show has confirmed the year as well as seen in The Penguin episode 2.
In The Batman directed by Matt Reeves, the Dark Knight has been operating in Gotham for two years. In the movie, Pattinsion’s Batman takes on Paul Dano’s Riddler and his massive attack that both flooded Gotham and killed the major crime boss Carmine Falcone. Now, The Penguin takes place just a week later, and the fallout of a new murder in The Penguin episode 2 has confirmed the exact year of both The Batman and this new Max series.
The Penguin Confirms The Batman Is Set In 2022
Thanks To Alberto Falcone’s Tomb
With Oz Cobb having killed Carmine’s son Alberto Falcone in The Penguin episode 1, the former heir to the Falcone Crime Family was buried and laid to rest in the family mausoleum in The Penguin episode 2. As such, the golden engraving on his tomb confirms the exact date of his death: November 13th, 2022. As such, this confirms that The Batman also took place in 2022.
It’s already been confirmed that the events of The Batman take place only a week before The Penguin. This makes sense, seeing how the movie starts on Halloween, October 31st. Considering the events of the movie and then Alberto’s murder a week after Riddler’s flood, it makes sense that his funeral wouldn’t be too long after (November 13th). However, the specific year is a much bigger confirmation, seeing as how it had been previously hinted that The Batman took place in 2019.
The Batman Hinted At A 2019 Setting
Plans Were Likely Shifted For 2022 After Filming Delays
Set photos and other teases during The Batman’s filming suggested that The Batman was set in 2019. This would have fallen in line with a desire to craft a modern-day Gotham, seeing as how The Batman was also filmed the same year. However, the pandemic did force several movie productions to shut down and cause delays, hence The Batman’s theatrical release not happening until 2022.
As such, The Penguin has now helped cement this apparent pivot to a confirmed 2022 setting, seeing as how the year was never fully specified in the film. This also falls in line with comments made by The Penguin’s director Craig Zobel during an exclusive interview with Screen Rant about The Penguin episode 2:
Screen Rant:
We learned that
The Batman
was set in 2022 through this episode, which we didn’t know before. Was that something that was consciously carried over into
The Penguin
, or what was the discussion about finally confirming that this is the timeline that we’re running with?Craig Zobel:
I can’t really speak for Matt a hundred percent, but my impression was that Matt sort of had decided the timeline before even Lauren [LeFranc] had started crafting the story and that it was certainly supposed to be 2022. It just maybe hadn’t gotten mentioned directly in the movie, but I think the gift of that movie is that it’s just a very specific world and look.
Keeping all that in mind, it’s very exciting to finally have a confirmed year for when both The Batman and The Penguin are set with this new version of Gotham City.
New episodes of The Penguin stream Sunday nights on Max.