Matt Reeves felt that The Penguin’s real name, Oswald Cobblepot, was just a bit too silly, so he asked DC if he could change it.
The Penguin’s civilian name has been the very extra Oswald Cobblepot for a good number of decades now, but in something as serious as 2022’s The Batman, a name like that might seem a little out of place (though we can of course suspend our sense of disbelief at a man dressed up in bat-themed military gear). So, the character’s name was changed to Oswald Cobb, or Oz Cobb, which definitely doesn’t sound silly at all, and in a recent interview with SFX Magazine (via ComicBookMovie.com), producer Dylan Clark offered a bit of context as to why that decision was made.
“They never got around to changing [The Penguin’s] 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,” Clark said. “By doing that they grounded the character.