Josh Gad denies casting as Batman villain The Penguin, despite starting rumour himself

Barely a week after sending online fandom into a speculation frenzy over his possible casting as Batman villain The Penguin, Josh Gad has denied that he has been cast in the role.

Of course, as has long since become the norm in these situations, Gad’s response to the query from MTV News seems loaded with enough insinuation to keep the speculation alive.

The 36-year old American actor, fresh from the massive box office success of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ set the wheels of the rumour mill in motion on 3 May with an image of The Penguin, posted without comment, on his Twitter page.

There was almost no other way of interpreting this than to assume that Gad was announcing his casting in the role, or at the very least declaring his interest in taking the role on – but now, the actor laughingly insists he was “just having some fun… just putting things out there.”

Gad goes on to state that he has never met Matt Reeves, the director lined up to call the shots on Warner Bros/DC’s ‘The Batman,’ the first solo movie for Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight – and, as such, the most likely film to reintroduce The Penguin on the big screen.

Still, Gad admits he would “absolutely be open to playing The Penguin in a Batman movie,” but insists there is nothing to the rumour at present: “it’s all… ‘we’ll see.’ Just putting it out in the ether.”

Whatever Gad says, it would certainly seem that he’s doing his best to drum up interest in the possibility of him playing the role. This has worked for some actors in the past, notably Vin Diesel, who posted images of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot on social media prior to being cast by Marvel. However, it didn’t work for Ron Perlman, who shared fan art of himself in the role of ‘Deadpool 2’s Cable, but lost out on the role to Josh Brolin.

The Penguin was previously portrayed by Burgess Meredith in 1966’s ‘Batman: The Movie,’ and Danny DeVito in 1992’s ‘Batman Returns.’ So far there has been no official word as to whether or not DC have plans to bring the character back in the new DCEU movies, although it’s feasible he could be brought into the in-development ‘The Batman,’ ‘Gotham City Sirens’ and/or ‘Suicide Squad 2.’

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