Marvel Star Jumping Ship To The Biggest Upcoming DC Series
DC's upcoming The Penguin series will get some more star power as Rhenzy Feliz of Marvel’s Runaways joins the cast.
In keeping with a growing trend of Marvel and DC actors swapping universes, Marvel’s Runaways star Rhenzy Feliz will be joining the unrecognizable Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti in the upcoming HBO Max series The Penguin. The series will pick up where the Matt Reeves-directed The Batman, which starred Robert Pattison as the Dark Knight, left off.
The show will feature Colin Farrell as the villainous titular character and Milioti as Sofia Falcone, the daughter of John Turturro’s mob boss character Carmine Falcone. It is unclear as to what specific character Rhenzy Feliz will be playing, but according to Deadline, he will play a teen whom the Penguin takes under his wing and makes his driver.
Colin Farrell has had a critical resurgence in his career of late, as he has ditched his leading man roles for more character-based roles and indie comedies such as The Banshees of Inisherin, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination and won the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Cristin Miloti grabbed our attention as the mother in the hit television series How I Met Your Mother. She first appeared on the show in Season 8 and continued through the ninth and final season, playing the Mother character the series largely revolved around. Most recently she starred in a new TV series on Peacock called The Resort, in which she played half of a troubled married couple alongside William Jackson Harper.
Marvel’s Runaways lasted three seasons and featured an ensemble cast including Rhenzy Feliz, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s James Marsters, and Elizabeth Hurley. In addition to his role on Marvel’s Runaways, Feliz also starred in the Disney animated film Encanto. He also was featured in American Horror Stories, Teen Wolf, and the George Clooney-directed The Tender Bar, starring a different Batman, Ben Affleck.
The musical chairs of actors moving from one cinematic universe to the other seems to be trending toward Marvel stars joining James Gunn at DC Studios. The newly-installed CEO has hinted that members of the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy could make the switch, like Dave Bautista. Brett Goldstein from Thor: Love and Thunder has also been cast for Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special.
The Penguin joins a long list of DC villains and supporting characters starring in their own shows. Pennyworth stars Jack Bannon as Alfred Pennyworth, the young Bruce Wayne’s mentor and butler. Gotham starred Robin Lord Taylor as another Oswald Cobblepot and the upcoming Arkham Asylum signals that this trend is likely to continue.
James Gunn is rebooting the DC Universe with a slew of new projects. His plans are to tie animated TV series and live-action movies into one cohesive universe. He also wants to keep other projects like The Batman, Joker, and The Penguin in a separate Elseworlds universe.
Elseworlds is similar to Marvel’s What If…? in that they can run parallel projects featuring characters operating in different times and places and universes. As we wait for The Batman 2, the new series should give us some insight into what role The Penguin, Sofia Falcone, and Rhenzy Feliz’s yet-to-be-named character will play in the sequel.
As the DC Universe continues to grow and the competition heats up between the two comic book titans, look for more stars like Rhenzy Feliz to make the jump from Marvel to DC and vice-versa.
