Colin Farrell earned a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination for playing Oz Cobb, aka the iconic Batman villain the Penguin, in his 2024 HBO series, but the character almost debuted in the DC Universe years earlier.

From femme fatale to romantic leading lady, Margot Robbie finally got a chance to work with Colin Farrell. Before her A Big Bold Beautiful Journey co-star’s tenure as Oswald Cobblepot, the 3x Oscar nominee almost went toe-to-toe with the DC supervillain when she starred as Harley Quinn in director Cathy Yan‘s Birds of Prey (2020).

His film features Penguin in a rather important role, one that has since gotten even more important thanks to the award-winning HBO spinoff show. So, had Reeves not asked for the character to be taken out of Birds of Prey,