Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb in "The Penguin," which debuts on HBO on Thursday, September 19.Macall Polay/HBO

Colin Farrell returns to the small screen as Oz Cobb in "The Penguin," which debuts on HBO tonight, Thursday, September 19.

"The Penguin" will premiere on HBO tonight at 9 pm EST, and will be available to stream on Max.

HBO will re-air the series premiere multiple times over the weekend, including Sunday, September 22 at 9 pm ET/PT.

Sunday nights at 9 pm ET/PT will be the debut day and time of all subsequent new episodes of the eight-episode series on HBO and Max, continuing with episode two on Sunday, September 29.

The new eight-episode DC Studios limited series follows the events of the 2022 blockbuster "The Batman" and sees Oz Cobb (Farrell), aka the Penguin, make a play to seize the reins of the crime world in Gotham.

Golden Globe winner Farrell, also an executive producer on the new series, stars alongside Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, and Clancy Brown in "The Penguin."

Farrell, who clinched an Oscar nomination for his role in the Irish juggernaut "The Banshees of Inisherin," stars as Oz Cobb (aka “The Penguin”) in the new eight-episode DC Studios limited series that continues filmmaker Matt Reeves' The Batman epic crime saga that began with Warner Bros. Pictures’ global blockbuster “The Batman.”

Developed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, the new series centers on the character played by Farrell in the 2022 film.

Ahead of the series debut on HBO, Farrell hit the red carpet - with his teenage son Henry - for the premiere in New York City as part of a media blitz.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet in New York City, Dublin native Farrell revealed his trick to mastering a New York accent for "The Penguin."

“My dialect coach, Jessica Drake, she has a library of thousands of accents from all over the world dating back to the ’30s and ’40s, so when we’re preparing for something we go in — based on where the character’s from, we have a listen to four or five different recordings from around that region, then you narrow the zone into something you think is good energetically, not just the sounds.

“And so, there was a gentleman who was the manager of an apartment complex in the ’80s; he was older, he sounded about 60 or so, and he talked a lot about Gefilte fish.

"And so whenever my accent started to go, she would call me back and I’d say ‘Gefilte fish’ and that was a little trick.”

Read more

Meanwhile, Farrell is nearly unrecognizable in his role as Oz Cobb. He told Good Morning America this week: "In 25 years of being an actor, I've never done anything that was as immersive as this, as instantly immersive, that was leaning into the talent of others, namely Mike Marino and his great team of artists and the work they did."

Farrell said he spent three hours in a makeup chair every day to transform into his character and that in the early stages, his colleagues didn't even recognize him once he was done up.

"I was looking in the mirror and what I'd see looking back was not me. I was nowhere to be found.

"It was really [a] powerful experience. Everyone here would feel the same thing, when you get that submerged, that hidden, it kind of gives you the [freedom].

"You would think it's limiting, but it's not. It was utterly liberating, which is good because the character is super dark and the show is a descent into psychopathy."

Early reviews of Farrell’s new series are positive.

“...If you skipped 'The Penguin,' you’d be making a big mistake, and missing out on one of the best television series of the year," Glen Weldon, the host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, said.

Richard Lawson, chief critic at Vanity Fair, writes that Farrell’s take on Oz is “a big, engaging performance, mesmerizing in both its broad gestures and its careful detail."

“The Penguin, against all world-building odds, is pretty decent actually,” Henry Wong, Senior Culture Writer at Esquire, said.

“A masterful examination of criminality, the show is twisted, disturbing and deeply enthralling," television critic Aramide Tinubu wrote in Variety.