Clancy Brown is adding another DC villain to his resume. According to Deadline, the longtime voice of Lex Luthor is heading over to Gotham City for HBO Max’s Penguin series. The show will find him squaring off against Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) as crime boss Salvatore Maroni.
The upcoming series picks up immediately after the events of The Batman and follows the title character on his journey to become Gotham’s top crime lord. However, Brown’s Maroni is likely to put up some resistance to his efforts. In the comics, Maroni has been a thorn in Batman’s side since his first appearance in 1942. He was also the one responsible for disfiguring Harvey Dent, leading him to become Two-Face.
Additionally, 1996’s Batman: The Long Halloween showed Maroni in a romantic relationship with Sofia Falcone, the daughter of his top rival, Carmine Falcone. Cristin Milioti has already been cast as Sofia in The Penguin. Regardless, it remains to be seen whether the two villains will have a similar tryst on the show.
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Eric Roberts previously played Sal Maroni in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight in 2008. David Zayas later brought the character to life in the first season of Fox’s Gotham. More recently, Jim Pirri provided Maroni’s voice in DC’s animated adaptation of The Long Halloween in 2021.
Among comic book fans, Brown will always be known for voicing Superman’s archenemy in various animated DC projects. However, he has branched out beyond Lex Luthor’s ivory tower over the years. In the early 2000s, Brown voiced Lex, Mr. Freeze, and Bane on Kids’ WB’s The Batman. He even crossed over to the Marvel Universe to play Rhino, George Stacy, and Ox in The Spectacular Spider-Man, as well as Nathaniel Essex/Mr. Sinister on Wolverine and the X-Men.
Brown has also shown up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe twice—once in Daredevil and The Punisher as Colonel Ray Schoonover, and again as the voice of Surtur in Thor: Ragnarok and What If…?.
HBO Max hasn’t set a release date for The Penguin, but production designer Kalina Ivanov just announced that the show is currently in production. So an early 2024 premiere seems like a safe bet.
Do you think Clancy Brown is a good choice to play Sal Maroni? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Batman: The Long Halloween
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