Before we begin, how many people do you know with the last name “Cobblepot”? It doesn’t really exist as a name. So Matt Reeves and company decided to make a little change to the Penguin’s name and, well, the internet is reacting to it like you’d expect.
In the new HBO series The Penguin, we follow Colin Farrell’s take on the Batman villain as he slowly becomes the Kingpin of Gotham as we know him to be. It is an exciting new adventure for Reeves’ version of the city and a show I really loved.
So why are people mad? Because it is confirmed that Oz’s last name isn’t short for Cobblepot—just Cobb. You know, a name that people have most definitely heard before. According to SFX Magazine, the change was approved by DC Comics President, Publisher, and CCO Jim Lee.
“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,” executive producer Dylan Clark said to SFX Magazine. “By doing that they grounded the character.”
“We had a lot of conversations with DC Comics and with Jim Lee [President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer],” he said. “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.”
The show runner loved the new take on the character
The showrunner for The Penguin is Lauren LeFranc, who really helped make the series its own vision of Gotham. Reeves and Clark have praised LeFranc for her work on The Batman prior to leading the charge with The Penguin, and their collaboration clearly made both worlds stronger. She also talked about how the change in name added to Reeves’ vision of Gotham.
LeFranc said, “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.” She went on to talk about how Cobblepot as a name just didn’t really feel like they’d exist in this version of Gotham. “It felt like in the Gotham City that Matt created in his film, Cobblepot 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.”
Doesn’t stop the annoying fans from being angry
Many took to X to share their upset over the name change. Why? I don’t know. I guess they were that tied to COBBLEPOT. “How is the name cobblepot too fantastical for matt reeves bro,” one wrote, with another calling this a “Rare Matt Reeves L.”
What I do think is interesting that … none of these replies are recognizing that “Oz” is just a nickname. His name is still Oswald. It’s just Cobb that changed. But still, they went on, complaining about this. “I don’t really get the point of this. Oz is short for Oswald anyway and the Cobblepot last name is what gives him some character and has a great backstory.”
Really what this boils down to is that “fans” of things hate any sort of change or creativity in their stories. Think about it. If given the chance, they’d just have every single story be the same. Oz Cobb is not that big of a change, and it does make him sound like a real guy.
“Oswald Cobblepot sounds more realistic than Oz Cobb. Oz Cobb sounds like a family steak house,” one fan wrote, and I have to wonder what steak houses he goes to.
At the end of the day, it just isn’t that deep. His name is Oswald “Oz” Cobb, and that’s more than fine for this version of Gotham.
Published: Sep 18, 2024 03:12 pm