16 Perfect Superhero TV Show Casting Choices That Nailed Their Characters

10. Robin Lord Taylor - The Penguin (Gotham)

The Penguin
Fox

Again, this is another casting in the Batman prequel series that you can't help but just love. It may help that Robin Lord Taylor is just such a lovely presence off camera, but even then his convincing portrayal of the ostensible King of Gotham is just too good not to admire.

A departure from the more repulsively appropriate portrayal offered by Danny DeVito in Tim Burton's Batman Returns, Taylor's iteration of the Penguin is far more subdued. Unhinged, yes, but just a little less extravagant. This Cobblepot is far more impulsive and maniacal than Burgess Meredith's as well, embodying a poverty-stricken interpretation that does away with the family's historically influential past. It works though, and Taylor's performance gives it the necessary edge to do so.

He's far from being all doom and gloom however, as the character is given plenty of comedic moments to somewhat offset his more macabre elements.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.