By now, you’re familiar with HBO’s series The Penguin that stems from Colin Farrell’s character in The Batman that starred Robert Pattinson as the world’s greatest detective in 2022. It debuted with record breaking numbers, coming in at 5.3 million viewers during its first four days of being on platforms (beating out heavyweight shows like The White Lotus and Succession).

It’s rare that spin-offs get so much love right out the gate; oftentimes they have to grow on you. The secret here is that there has to truly be a demand to pair with a well-executed project. You take a top notch actor like Farrell whose portrayal and transformation was highly praised, then devise a well-written script worthy of bringing together a talented cast to support him. That’s exactly what creator Lauren LeFranc and her team did, tapping Michael Kelly, Theo Rossi, Rhenzy Feliz, Clancy Brown, and the absolute powerhouse that is Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone.

The Penguin has already been met with much award buzz, calling it the series of the year and commending Farrell and Milioti for their standout performances. We’ve now seen what happens when creatives put their thinking caps on and churn out storylines with characters we want to see more of. Here are a few spin-offs that are worthy of being further developed.

J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle

J.K. Simmons delivered the most accurate depiction of the Daily Bugle’s fearless leader, J. Jonah Jameson, through Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. While Toby Maguire’s Peter Parker had a lot of villains to fight through, Jameson was undoubtedly the one who stressed him out the most. But much like the case with The Penguin being successful without Batman, a story about the operation of the newspaper organization could thrive without the need of a Spidey appearance. Simmons’ acting chops and uncanny resemblance have made him a fan favorite for decades now, even exciting fans when he reprised his role in a post-credit scene in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.

This could work as a series rather than a full film, with each episode showing how the Daily Bugle reacts in real time as Spider-Man tackles his enemies (Parker wouldn’t necessarily need to appear, but the idea that he is taking part in action elsewhere is enough to pique our interest). Writers can further get creative with this as they could explore deep cut villains that we haven’t seen before and showcase Jameson instructing his writers to dig for more information to write up articles. No matter how or if this would be a possibility, it is almost certain that it would be a hit as the world of Spider-Man is endless and Jameson has been there all along to document it all. Something tells me Simmons would be more than thrilled to grab his famous cigar, put on a frown, and yell,  “Bring more pictures of Spider-Man!” a few more times.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Robin

What will go down as one of the biggest character arcs we never got to explore is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robin. In the final scenes of Christopher Nolan’s highly regarded The Dark Knight Rises, his character has to show his ID to a receptionist and she comments, “You should use your full name. I like that name, Robin.” Up until then, he had simply been known as John Blake, but comic book fans lost their minds in the theater at this reveal, sparking many questions around whether or not we would get to see him as Batman’s sidekick. We have yet to get a worthy depiction of the character as many have tried, with Chris O’Donnell being the closest to decent.

Gordon-Levitt is extremely talented and unproblematic, making him a very likable actor, one that we would definitely flock to watch. Now it would be shooting for the stars to anticipate Nolan directing a Robin film, but if he could have his hands in writing or production for a series, we could see a great spin-off, one that would be just as intriguing as The Penguin. Let’s be honest, we love the Joker, we do, and it’s harmless to hint about his presence in future projects, but we want to see other characters and conflict that comes out of Gotham. We can keep our fingers crossed, but it might take some convincing as the actor told Forbes in a recent interview for his new film Killer Heat, “I just always felt that it was a great conclusion and that’s how it was always intended.”

X-Men Origins: Magneto

Boy oh boy was it tragic when they decided to scrap this film. X-Men Origins: Magneto was set to be the follow up to X-Men Origins: Wolverine as it would further dive into how one of the most powerful characters came to be. While we may find Wolverine to be fun now (it introduced us to the soon to be dynamic duo that is Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman), back when it initially released, it was seen as an absolute mess and it featured an overload of mutants. The purpose of an origin story is to heavily focus on one character, but the film failed to do so, which impacted the Magneto flick.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said that the fate of a follow-up would depend on whether or not Wolverine was successful, and, although it went on to gross $353 million at the box office, it simply wasn’t enough. But that was the past and things have changed for the better with there now being new angles to explore. Michael Fassbender later portrayed the complicated friend turned villain and did a stellar job across four films opposite James McAvoy as Professor X. This leaves room for many ways in which Ian McKellen and Fassbender could join forces to still explore the story of Magneto. We have to face the fact that we can’t expect Wolverine to carry the X-Men team forever, so there has to be other storylines that branch off to further develop additional characters. Perhaps they could explore how Magneto teams up with Magik, Emma Frost, and Cyclops at one point. Nonetheless, this film shouldn’t have been scrapped and could not hit a theater today, but a series would likely be very well received if done properly.

Paul Dano’s the Riddler and Arkham Asylum

Jim Carrey was an absolute gem as the Riddler in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and we will always appreciate him for that. However, Paul Dano’s chilling take on the villain was a big part of why The Batman was a success. The manner in which his riddles inflicted fear was unlike what we’ve seen before, and with his character still very much alive at the end of the film, we’d gladly see more of. It may be a stretch to fathom Dano carrying a whole film or series on his own, but there’s potential there.

The opportunities for tie-ins are endless, with moving away from the main character board to explore the criminally insane patients such as Professor Pyg, Mad Hatter, and Scarecrow (while doubtful, Cillian Murphy briefly reprising his role would be epic). Dano’s performance was very much unlike anything we’ve seen from him in his career so it’s possible he might be interested in further developing his arc. The bigger picture here is the dire need to branch away from the mainstream heroes and villains we’ve seen depicted on screen for decades and begin taking a look at smaller characters that have potential. After all, who would have thought a series about the Penguin would have been as wildly successful as it has grown to be.