It looks like a major Batman villain theory around The Penguin TV series has been permanently put to bed…
So, a few weeks back an eagle-eyed fan of The Penguin noticed that the show’s villainous psychiatrist, Dr Julian Rush, played by Theo Rossi, had a couple of items on his office desk that pointed to him being one of Batman’s most formidable villains… The Scarecrow.
So, in the series, Cristin Milioti’s Sofi Falcone is being treated by Dr Rush due to her villainous backstory but in one of the scenes we can clearly see a clawed glove and raggedy mask, just like those used by Scarecrow in the comics.
The scene looked like this:
It’s hard to argue that Rush’s story isn’t similar to Scarecrow’s – he works in Arkham, is now involved in the Gotham drug scene and he treats the criminally insane, although his name is not Jonathan Crane, the name of Scarecrow in the comics, which is really the only difference between the two.
However, it seems that no, it’s not Scarecrow, so put the tinfoil hats away.
Showrunner Lauren LeFranc has addressed the rumour and given it a very affirmative denial: “I can say he’s not the Scarecrow.”
Is Scarecrow in The Penguin series, hidden in plain sight? Well, yes…
Disappointing.
The scene appears in the show’s fourth episode and production designer Kalina Ivanov was asked about the link to Scarecrow and answered simply: “We left it open for interpretation.”
It would seem likely that showrunner LeFranc is a definitive source on if or not Rush is actually Scarecrow but even with this denial, I feel it’s likely that there is a connection; maybe Rush is an acolyte of Crane’s but I really don’t think such an iconic pair of items would be left on that desk by chance – these guys know that fans will dissect everything and the glove and mask would certainly be found.
Whatever happens, it’s fun that we can still find such joy in these types of shows, sparking debate and conversation, speculation and theories… maybe that’s the point after all.
Let me know your thoughts, guys…
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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