Minnie Driver is playing the Penguin on ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’

Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con was full of news about the Penguin! But even before the panel previewing the upcoming live-action series starring Colin Farrell as Batman’s nemesis Oswald Cobblepot could begin in Hall H, DC unveiled new details about the character’s portrayal on the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader during its own panel.

On that show, which comes from Batman: The Animated Series mastermind Bruce Timm, the Penguin will be female: Oswalda Cobblepot, not Oswald. This version of the character will be portrayed by Minnie Driver.

The casting is in keeping with Batman: Caped Crusader‘s new approach to several iconic Gotham City characters, alongside Jamie Chung’s portrayal of Harley Quinn as an Asian American woman.

“That’s what’s so brilliant about what he’s reimagined,” Driver told Entertainment Weekly at our Comic-Con video studio earlier in the day. “The expansion of this particular character feels so timely. For such a vintage noir show, it’s incredibly modern.”

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In addition to wielding a deadly umbrella and making her mark on the criminal underworld of Gotham City, Driver’s version of the Penguin will also sing on the show. Driver tells EW she was nervous about that performance, but was helped out by a particularly skilled sound engineer.

“I didn’t know it when I went into the studio. It’s a big jazz standard,” Driver says. “The sound engineer was a musician. I was freaking out, and he asked for 20 minutes. He got his guitar out and we sat there and worked it out. He was the most brilliant accompanist. It was him who really gave me the confidence, because I had to belt it. I grew up singing in jazz clubs, and I didn’t know it.”

In addition to Driver and Chung, Batman: Caped Crusader also stars Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass) as the Dark Knight. The ensemble cast also includes Diedrich Bader, Christina Ricci, and Mckenna Grace, among others.

All 10 episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader hit Prime Video on Aug. 1.

Watch a clip from EW’s interview with Driver, Chung, and Linklater above, and the full interview in our Day 3 Comic-Con livestream below.