Robin Lord Taylor’s Oswald Cobblepot has been one of the most compelling characters on Gotham from the beginning, and now the show looks to be fleshing out the character's backstory a bit further by introducing his dear old dad. Well, maybe he won’t be so dear. Or old, really. He will be played by Paul Reubens, which might be the greatest casting we’ve heard all year, and is definitely the greatest casting news we’ve heard today. That’s right, Pee-wee Hermann is going to be The Penguin’s father.
It was Robin Lord Taylor who initially broke the news this weekend at New York Comic-Con. And although we didn’t get a ton of details regarding the casting, he did seem about as enthusiastic at the prospect of having Reubens play his dad on the show as we are. Per THR, Taylor said:
Pee-wee Herman is playing my dad. What the hell?! Oh my God!
This won’t be the first time Paul Reubens has signed on to play The Penguin’s father. He also fulfilled the role in the 1992 movie Batman Returns, which is doubly interesting, as now he'll play a similar gig on the big and small screen. We don’t know yet if the role will be that of a guest stint or something meatier, although Penguin’s mother, Gertrud did pop up in several episodes of Gotham during Season 1, so anything is possible. Cobblepot’s father hasn’t really seemed to be in the picture so far, so I’m interested to see how Fox’s comic book-oriented show will flesh things out related to this upcoming plot.
Reubens is currently pretty busy, so it’s great that he can come in and do a stint on Gotham sometime this season. The actor also has new movie Pee-wee’s Big Holiday in the works with Netflix, making the actor even busier. It's expected to premiere in 2016.
As far as Gotham goes, the plot has been pretty crazy and fast-paced throughout the first few weeks of Season 2. Much of the focus has been on Theo Galavan and the rise of the villains, including Barbara and the recently-late Jerome. However, Cobblepot has come into his own as the head crime boss in Gotham City, and even struck a deal with Jim Gordan, who has finally started to see the value in working with the bad guys running the city, however much it hurts his moral compass. Penguin even did him a solid when he got him reinstated with the GCPD, but Gordon also had to do Penguin a favor, which ended up forcing the police detective to truly get in bed with the baddie. We’ll see how that “friendship” plays out in the coming weeks. I’m guessing it’ll probably be as interesting as introducing a father figure.
You can catch new episodes of Fox’s Gotham on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET. Or catch who else Gotham cast recently, here.
