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Oswald Cobblepot isn’t exact a household name, but even casual Batman fans know that this is the given name of Gotham’s Gentleman of Crime, otherwise known as the Penguin. But for the latest (and arguably one of the very best) portrayals of the character, the minds behind the story are making a big change. No longer is he known as Oswald Cobblepot. Instead, the main character of HBO’s The Penguin is known as Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobb.
And this apparently isn’t just some thing where he’ll get his real name later. It’s easy to imagine this being the story of how Oz Cobb the Gangster became Oswald Cobblepot the Gentleman of Crime–his mother changed his name for one reason or another, and he retakes his real name as he takes on his new identity. But that’s not what this is. The Penguin is named Oz Cobb.
“They never got around to changing his name in the comics like they did with the Riddler, going from Edward Nigma to Edward Nashton, from an unreal name to a real name,” explained produce Dylan Clark in an interview with SFX Magazine (via ComicBookMovie). “By doing that, they grounded the character.”
Indeed, when the Riddler was created, his name was Edward Nigma/Nygma, or “Engima” because comic book writers love a punny name that predestines a character for the role they’ll take on. Later on, writers established that the Riddler’s birth name was Edward Nashton and that Nygma was a name he gave himself later on.
“We had a lot of conversations with DC Comics and with Jim Lee [President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics],” Clark continued. “They had thought about changing his name at some point but had never done it. Matt asked, ‘Can I call our character Oz Cobb?’ And Jim said, ‘Absolutely!’ So we got a blessing from the king himself. That small change of the name allowed us to look at this character in a grounded way.”
It’s true that Oswald Cobblepot is a comically fancy name, like the kind of name someone gives a cat with a particularly luxurious coat. But it’s not like his name was Partridge Egret Nighthawk Guin or something. Oswald Cobblepot is just a fancy gentleman’s name for a fancy gentleman who wants to be part of high society. It’s also true that while DC did rename the Riddler to Edward Nashton, and that Reeves’ Batman called him by that name, Batman fans still think of him as being Edward Nygma.
“Matt’s created new canon in his film, and I’m creating new canon in this show. We have characters you’re familiar with but there’s a different spin on them,” explained showrunner Lauren LeFranc in the same interview. “It felt like in the Gotham City that Matt created in his film, Cobblepott seemed less of a real person in the way that Cobb is a real last name. He’s a gangster and it just kind of felt more correct.”
Fox’s Gotham TV series found another interesting way to handle this. Oswald’s mother was Gertrud Kapelput, with Kapelput being a similarly fictional Hungarian name but adding on the idea that his family’s name changed over the years to better fit their life in America.
With this version of the Penguin being an ambitious gangster rather than an aspiring socialite, the name kind of makes sense. It’s both a relatively small, incidental change, and a weirdly unnecessary one.
The Penguin is executive produced by Matt Reeves, Dylan Clark, Colin Farrell, and Lauren LeFranc. Ferrell stars as the titular character, and LeFranc is showrunner for the series. The Penguin’s first episode hits HBO and Max on September 19.
