After decades of struggling to match Marvel Studios’ consistent success, DC appears to have finally found its identity. While Marvel grapples with recent setbacks like The Marvels‘ disappointing box office performance and Secret Invasion’s critical disaster, DC Studios has delivered two consecutive hits that suggest James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new approach might succeed where previous attempts failed. More importantly, the critical and commercial triumph of both The Penguin and Creature Commandos proves that quality storytelling, rather than forced interconnectivity, is the key to building a sustainable cinematic universe.

There’s poetry in DC’s newfound success emerging from the ashes of failure. After Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the plug on DC Extended Universe in 2022, following years of diminishing returns and creative missteps, many wondered if DC could ever pose a real challenge to Marvel’s dominance. Yet, by learning from past mistakes and embracing a radically different philosophy, DC Studios is crafting stories that don’t just match Marvel’s best offerings. They might even surpass them.

Why The Penguin Changed Everything

The Penguin represents everything the DCEU got wrong, and DC Studios is getting right. Instead of rushing to introduce new characters or plant seeds for future crossovers, the series takes its time exploring Gotham City’s criminal underground through the eyes of Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb. Each episode peels back new layers of the character’s psychology while building tension through carefully crafted storylines that pay off in deeply satisfying ways.

This methodical approach to storytelling has resonated with audiences in unprecedented ways. While The Penguin‘s premiere numbers were impressive – drawing 5.3 million viewers and outperforming recent HBO hits like Succession – what’s truly remarkable is how viewership grew with each subsequent episode. The show’s mounting success proves that audiences will stick around when characters are given room to breathe and evolve naturally.

That’s even more relevant when considering The Penguin as a spinoff of Matt Reeve’s The Batman. This TV show entered development organically because creative minds were willing to make it happen. So, instead of ordering a specific TV show for the sake of a cinematic lineup, DC Studios has just stepped out of the way for Reeves and showrunner Lauren LeFranc to do what they were passionate about.

[RELATED: Creature Commandos Is Setting Up Frankenstein as DC’s Biggest Monster (and Not Just Physically)]

With all that in mind, the Golden Globe win for Colin Farrell isn’t just another accolade for the trophy case. Instead, it validates DC’s new strategy for movies and TV shows. By prioritizing character development and emotional depth over spectacle, The Penguin achieved something that eluded even Marvel’s most acclaimed Disney+ series: serious awards recognition. The show’s additional nominations for Best Television Limited Series and Cristin Milioti’s powerhouse performance as Sofia Falcone demonstrate that superhero content can transcend genre limitations when creators are given the freedom to tell the stories they want to tell.

Creature Commandos Proves Lightning Can Strike Twice

If The Penguin showed that DC could excel with established characters through the Elseworlds initiative, Creature Commandos proves they can work the same magic with obscure properties. The animated series, which follows a black ops team of monsters and outcasts, had every reason to fail. First of all, animation usually attracts a smaller audience, especially when it’s developed for mature audiences. Furthermore, The Penguin rose from the shadow of Batman, DC’s most profitable character, while the members of Creature Commandos are a bunch of unknowns. Yet, the show became one of the highest-rated DC adaptations ever while steadily building its audience through word-of-mouth.

The show’s success is particularly meaningful because it launches James Gunn’s DCU proper. Unlike previous attempts to chase Marvel’s formula, Creature Commandos carves its own path by embracing weirdness and horror elements that set it apart from typical superhero fare. In other words, the show is not too worried about how it will connect to the supposed family-friendly tone of 2025’s Superman, focusing instead on telling a story that fits the quirky criminals that lead the story.

While Marvel still dominates the box office overall, recent projects have been hit or miss due to the MCU’s apparent creative fatigue. The studio’s rigid commitment to interconnectivity often comes at the expense of individual stories, with shows and movies increasingly requiring homework to be fully appreciated – that becomes even more evident when we realize Marvel Studios found unexpected success with Agatha All Along, a low-budget quasi-standalone story. That, combined with DC Studios’ success with more focused, character-driven narratives, suggests another way forward might exist for superhero media.

A Better Future for Everyone

The success of Creature Commandos and The Penguin arrives just as Gunn prepares to launch the DCU’s theatrical slate with Superman in July 2025. These shows provide a blueprint for success. Gunn and his team have shown that superhero fatigue isn’t inevitable by prioritizing contained storytelling over multiple-project ambitions and embracing what makes DC characters distinct. That shows audiences haven’t grown tired of the genre. They’ve simply become more discerning about quality. As DC Studios reaches for Marvel’s crown, the MCU will be forced to adapt and rethink its strategy, which is excellent news for fans.

History shows that strong competition between DC and Marvel ultimately benefits fans. When Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight pushed superhero filmmaking to new heights, Marvel responded with increasingly ambitious projects that culminated in the groundbreaking success of the Infinity Saga. Similarly, Marvel’s mastery of shared universe storytelling forced DC to innovate, leading to the current renaissance under DC Studios.

This healthy rivalry between DC and Marvel promises to drive both studios to new creative heights. As they push each other to innovate and improve, fans can look forward to more sophisticated and engaging stories from both universes. The real winners in this competition will be audiences, who are finally getting the best of both worlds.

The Penguin and Creature Commandos are currently available to stream on MAX.

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The Penguin showcased one of Batman’s classic villains and delivered one of the best shows of the year in the process. The Penguin is likely to be in contention for a host of awards as a result, and if fans weren’t already anticipating The Batman II, they surely are after that finale. While it’s not clear if we’ll ever get a Season 2 for The Penguin, one can’t help but look at Batman’s iconic rogues’ gallery in hopes another villain might received the same impressive treatment, and that’s just what we’re doing right here. Here are seven Batman villains that absolutely deserve their own series.

Two-Face

While this list isn’t specific to Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe, Two-Face would be the next logical extension of that universe, and would be a big beneficiary of the TV series format. The Batman doesn’t introduce Harvey Dent into the mix yet, but after what The Riddler did to Gotham and the bloody battle in the Gotham Underworld in The Penguin, the city sure could use someone like Harvey Dent to come in and clean house.

That’s the perfect way to bring in Dent, who could come in and immediately win over a beaten down city in The Batman II. You could go one of two ways and still get great results, and the first path would be to have Dent transformed into Two-Face towards the end of the film and then have an eight episode series explore his trauma and the eventual full transformation into the villain we all know. Another method would be to have Dent just be a key figure in The Batman II and then in the series have viewers get to know him in a much deeper way before the transformation happens towards the end of the show, keying up a big role in The Batman III.

Catwoman

Sticking with The Batman side of DC, another character perfectly suited for a solo series is Catwoman. Catwoman played a central role in the first film, and those who followed The Penguin know that Selina was revealed to be Sofia Gigante’s half-sister, teasing that they will encounter each other in next film.

[RELATED: The Penguin Star Colin Farrell Reveals Pivotal Scene Cut from the Finale Episode]

A full storyline between the two could be explored thoroughly in a television series, as opposed to being one of several main plot points in the next movie, though this could also be touched on in the film and then play out in a series that would set things up for The Batman III. Kyle has also run across not only Batman but Penguin as well, and you could easily fold those relationships and dynamics into the series and explore more of Selina’s past as well.

Talia Al Ghul

Here’s where we start to swerve from The Batman universe, though this could still apply to that world at some point down the line. The person we’re talking about is Talia Al Ghul, otherwise known as the Daughter of the Demon and the mother to the best Robin, Damian Wayne. While Ra’s al Ghul commands much of the attention in both comics and film, we’ve never really had the chance to see Talia get that kind of shine on the big or small screen (outside of the animated series), and anyone who knows her history knows how great an in-depth series based around her could be.

Following Talia’s story would allow you to explore the League of Assassins through a lens outside of Ra’s or Batman, and even if Batman isn’t a part of the story for the majority of the series, you could still have Batman as a factor given Talia’s feelings for him and their rollercoaster relationship.

With Brave and the Bold set to introduce Damian Wayne and Bruce to the DC Studios universe, this would be a perfect series to set the stage for that and introduce several important characters and concepts into the world ahead of time. Depending on when it took place, this could also act as a series that introduced Talia and Damian’s initial dynamic before he goes to live with his father, and we could also witness how Talia is willing to put her dad’s vision aside when it comes to Bruce and his survival. There are a number of factors that would be intriguing to explore over the course of several episodes, and you’d still get some big, action set-pieces as well, making Talia a great candidate to get some solo shine.

Hush

Hush is one of DC’s most popular Batman stories for a reason, and DC shocked the world when it revealed the story was getting a sequel. With the story brought back into the limelight, it would make a lot of sense for DC to bring Hush to the big or small screen, and while there’s potential with both, he would be most perfectly suited for a longform series.

The character of Hush was eventually revealed to be Bruce’s childhood friend Thomas Elliot, immediately giving him a tether to Batman that few others have. That also feeds directly into why Hush hates the Waynes, as Thomas Wayne saved his mother after Elliot tried to kill her. When he’s older, Elliot returns and manipulates Batman’s enemies into wearing him down over time, all the while teasing that Jason Todd is back from the dead (before he actually returns from the dead mind you).

This put Batman on his heels, which is not something we typically see, and once the reveal was made there was even more to explore in subsequent stories. Hush would come back and cause havoc in Bruce’s life several times, nearly killing Catwoman at one point and then literally taking on Bruce’s face in another story later on. A series following Batman investigating and trying to piece together who Hush is could be fantastic, though a series that explored things from Hush’s perspective would also be intriguing, as he moves pieces around the board to throw Bruce off his trail. Either way, count me in for Hush making it to the small screen at some point in the future.

Bane

Only a few have found a way to defeat Batman, but there are even fewer who managed to break him. The first was Bane, the venom-juiced villain that would wear down the Bat and almost make him paranoid in the lead-up to the battle that would change everything. Bane would break Batman’s back in an iconic encounter, and though Batman would eventually return, it was a victory that has been ensconced in Batman lore.

Crazily enough, though, Bane would return and conquer Gotham as his own in the hit story “City of Bane,” and this story would lead to another now-famous moment when Bane enforced his rule over Gotham by killing Alfred in front of Robin. Again, few can claim this kind of impact on Batman, and whether a series follows Bane’s rise in prison and eventual breakout before making his way to Gotham or his takeover of Gotham and unseating of the Dark Knight as Gotham’s top force, you’ve got a winner regardless.

Clayface

There are a multitude of Batman villains that would be wonderful subjects for a show format, but few have as much potential as Clayface. There’s already two stories that would translate beautifully to the small screen, with one being the origin story that turned Basil Karlo into the shape shifting Clayface. That story involves Batman but in a rather limited way, and much of the series would just be following along Basil’s trajectory from A-List movie star to chemically altered villain, as there’s a lot to be explored throughout that journey.

The other story ripe for translating is the relatively recent Batman: One Bad Day: Clayface, a stellar series of one-shots that focused on different Batman villains. The story moves Clayface to Los Angeles as he creates a new identity and tries to recapture his dream of being one of the Hollywood greats. This story throws him into a familiar but, in several ways, very different setting, and gets in touch with the character’s aspirations as well as the lengths he will go to in making those dreams happen. You could also pick and choose elements from both of these stories to create an altogether different portrait of the villain, and all three ways hold limitless potential.

Joker

Well, you just knew Joker was going to be on this list, because you can’t get around Batman’s greatest nemesis of all time. Outside of Batman, Joker has some of the most iconic portrayals on both the small and big screen, so it’s not like Joker needs another TV series. That said, he’s iconic for a reason, and now that the character is probably on ice for a while in the films thanks to the recent Joker sequel, it might be a perfect time to bring him to the small screen once again.

Bringing things full circle, Joker was actually set up in an unused alternate scene from The Batman. While he was largely kept in shadow, the performance from Barry Keoghan is still incredibly disturbing and chilling, and begs to be featured in some way down the line. While it’s not known if he will make a debut in The Batman II, featuring his story in a solo TV series would certainly be a great way to bring him into the world without stealing the attention away from other big villains and stories the sequel wants to focus on. That performance made a major impression, even in a scene that ultimately didn’t make it into the movie, so it would be a shame to waste it and not follow that story through in some form or fashion.

Well that’s our list, and there are many others that could easily make this list. You can let me know your picks on Twitter and Threads @mattaguilar and on Bluesky @knightofoa!

The post After The Penguin: 7 Batman Villains that Deserve Their Own TV Series appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The final episode of The Penguin may have planted a significant Easter egg that hints at The Batman: Part II‘s next major antagonist. Eagle-eyed fans spotted peculiar owl-shaped patterns in the courthouse curtains during the show’s climactic scenes, potentially teasing the infamous Court of Owls’ arrival in Matt Reeves’ Gotham City.

The scene in question has Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) visiting Gotham City’s courthouse to meet Sebastian Hady (Rhys Coiro), a crooked councilman who used to do favors for Carmine Falcone before The Penguin took over his operation. In the scene, Oswald feeds Sebastian half-truths about Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), promising her head if the councilman helps to spin the story Oz wants the press to tell. It’s an iconic scene because it reveals how Oz elevates his criminal enterprise to the political arena, truly becoming “The Penguin” fans know from Batman lore. In addition, it exemplifies Gotham’s systemic corruption, the central theme behind the Court of Owls storyline.

Gotham’s Ancient Secret Society

Created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, the Court of Owls emerged as one of Batman’s most formidable adversaries during DC’s New 52 reboot in 2011. This clandestine organization of Gotham’s wealthiest and most influential families has secretly controlled the city since its founding in the 1600s. Their existence was long considered nothing more than a nursery rhyme meant to frighten Gotham’s children: “Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.”

The organization’s influence runs so deep that even Batman initially dismissed its existence as mere urban legend. As a child, Bruce Wayne suspected the Court was responsible for his parents’ murder. He launched his own investigation, only to find dead ends — a rare investigative failure for the World’s Greatest Detective. This blunder would later haunt Batman, as the Court was indeed connected to several tragedies in the Wayne family’s history, including the murder of Bruce’s great-grandfather, Alan Wayne. 

As the New 52 storyline reveals, Bruce is personally connected to the Court of Owls through his ancestors. For instance, Alan Wayne created a trust to develop Gotham’s infrastructure through various construction projects, including the iconic Wayne Tower and numerous other skyscrapers. The Court manipulated these developments, incorporating hidden chambers and passages throughout the city’s most prominent buildings. These secret spaces, known as “Owl’s Nests,” were built between the 13th floors of Gotham’s skyscrapers, a number deliberately chosen for its connection to death and misfortune in various cultures.

Despite the fantastical nature of the Court of Owls’ history, it fits like a glove in Reeves’ Batman crime saga. With The Batman and The Penguin, the filmmaker has established a version of Gotham City stripped of all supernatural elements of the Dark Knight mythos. Even the fantastic technology used by Bruce Wayne has been grounded, so the story focuses on street-level criminals and Batman’s investigative prowess. Still, Batman wouldn’t be Batman if he couldn’t get into a fistfight with mighty enemies. Fortunately, the Court of Owls also has a battalion of assassins to do their dirty deeds.

The Deadly Talons of the Court of Owls

The Court’s most terrifying weapons are its Talons, highly skilled assassins utterly loyal to the organization. Each Talon is selected from childhood, often from among circus performers and acrobats for their physical prowess. After that, they are trained in combat and infiltration to act as near-invisible killers no one knows exist.

In the comic books, the process of becoming a Talon pushes the boundaries of a grounded story. The Talon transformation involves a complex chemical procedure using a rare metal called Electrum, which contains traces of Dionesium, a substance with regenerative properties. This process fundamentally alters their biology, granting them enhanced strength, speed, and, most importantly, a form of immortality. 

Talons can survive injuries that would be fatal to regular humans, including decapitation, and continue fighting after that. Their only significant weakness is extreme cold, which can temporarily neutralize their healing factor. It’s unlikely Reeves will ever use immortal warriors in his cinematic universe. But even stripped of regenerative powers, a squad of professional assassins would still push Robert Pattison’s Batman to his limits. Given that even the actor thinks the Court of Owls could be a good fit for the sequel, it’s hard to argue against that.

The Court of Owls Is a Perfect Fit for Reeves’ Gotham

Reeves has explicitly stated that Batman: Part II will “dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one.” This direction aligns with the Court of Owls’ narrative, particularly after The Penguin. The series has shown how Gotham’s elite manipulate essential services like electricity distribution, redirecting power from vulnerable areas like Crown Point to wealthy neighborhoods. 

The Court of Owls could represent the ultimate form of this corruption. They would show how the city’s problems cannot be solved just by taking down corrupt officials or crime families. Instead, The Batman: Part II could explain how an ancient cabal has orchestrated Gotham’s tragedies to keep power while the masses suffer. 

The Martha Wayne connection established in The Batman provides another entry point for the Court of Owls storyline. The first film revealed Martha’s troubled history of mental illness and her connection to the Arkham family. In the comics, the Court of Owls storyline introduces Lincoln March, who claims to be Thomas and Martha Wayne’s supposed second son, allegedly born in Willowwood Home for Children (a secret Arkham facility) and abandoned there when Martha’s mental health deteriorated. This connection would allow Reeves to expand on the Wayne family’s dark history while maintaining the noir detective elements that made The Batman successful.

Tying Arkham with the Court of Owls for The Batman: Part II could also force Bruce to face the horrible reality of the psychiatric institution, an essential step in his journey to becoming a better protector. Finally, any Arkham storyline is a great excuse to bring Sofia back, especially after her relationship with Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) was teased in The Penguin.

The Penguin is currently streaming on Max. The Batman: Part II will hit theaters on September 30th, 2026.

The post The Penguin Might Be Hiding Batman: Part II Villain in Plain Sight appeared first on ComicBook.com.

DC fans have been blown away by Colin Farrell’s performance as Oswald Cobb in The Batman and its spinoff series The Penguin – and with good reason. Farrell was appeal to disappear so completely into the character of Oz (and all the makeup to create him) that even his co-stars (like Sofia Falcone actress Cristin Milioti) didn’t get to see the “real Colin” until filming was over.

Now, the mind-blowing change between “Colin Farrell” and “Oz Cobb” has been captured in a video that has immediately gone viral. As you can see for yourself below, hearing Colin Farrell’s Irish brogue coming out of Oz Cobb’s face is so uncanny that it’s almost unnerving:

RELATED: Why You Have to Watch The Penguin Twice to Really Understand the Show

“Yeah he created a real person… I spent a year with “Oz”; I wouldn’t really see Colin [Farrell] out of makeup. I think I’ve seen Colin out of makeup three times,” Cristin Milioti previously told CinemaBlend. “It was so incredible to get to know this­—­It’s very strange when I hear his voice, it really flips me out. And certainly when I see him in his real form, because I associate those eyes and that voice with someone who I spent a year with. We would stare at each other for a year. So I feel like I know that person.”

Farrell’s performance in The Penguin has already catapulted him to the top of the (current) list for the 2025 Emmy Awards category of “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series”. The 2024 Emmy in that category was won by actor Hiroyuki Sanada, for his peformance in Disney-FX’s Shogun – a show that is probably The Penguin’s biggest rival for the crown of “Best TV Show of 2024.” The fact that the conversation is about a culturally-rich series based on an acclaimed novel, and another that’s based on a lower-tier comic book character, only proves that quality, prestige-level television can come in a wide variety of forms.

MORE: Why The Penguin Needs Season 2 to Win Big At the Emmys

The Penguin stars Colin Farrell (Oz Cobb), Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush). The series is now streaming on Max.

The post The Penguin: This BTS Video of Colin Farrell Breaking Character Is Going Viral & Blowing Minds appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Past meets present as both versions of Francis Cobb strike an identical pose in a newly released behind-the-scenes photo from HBO‘s The Penguin. Actresses Deirdre O’Connell and Emily Meade, who play older and younger versions of Francis Cobb respectively, shared a twinning moment dressed in identical black sequin gowns and matching hairstyles.

Meade shared the photo on Instagram with the playful caption “Broads be broading,” showcasing the two actresses embodying different eras of Colin Farrell‘s character’s mother.

The character of Francis Cobb plays a crucial role in shaping Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot’s journey, according to O’Connell’s October interview with Collider. “If Oz loves anyone, he loves his mother, but she also knows more about him and his past than anyone else. She’s had a strong hand in shaping who he has become.”

O’Connell revealed her approach to the complex mother-son dynamic was inspired by personal connections. “There was a toughness to the women on that side of my family that was mixed with a glamor puss quality,” she explained, referencing her grandmother, a former Ziegfeld Follies showgirl. She also drew inspiration from classic mob films, particularly Gena Rowlands in Gloria and Geraldine Page’s Academy Award-nominated performance in The Pope of Greenwich Village.

RELATED: The Penguin Finale Reveals the Shocking Truth About Oz’s Relationship With His Mom

The veteran actress described Francis as someone who “must have been a great bookkeeper, not just a good bookkeeper. She must have been one of those people that could have run the whole world if she hadn’t been a woman and she hadn’t been in the place that she was in the world.”

Regarding Francis’s relationship with her son, O’Connell painted a nuanced picture: “I think she’s afraid of what she has wrought and what she has let loose on the world. She knows that she’s let someone who has no moral center, who has no empathy, and who actually is truly cold-blooded into the world, but he keeps turning this warm/hot love onto her.”

The eight-episode series delves into Oz’s ascent in Gotham’s criminal hierarchy following the events of The Batman and before its sequel. The story also introduces Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), fresh from Arkham Asylum and determined to claim her father’s criminal empire. O’Connell hints at Francis’s perspective on Sofia, suggesting she views her as “a spoiled brat” but can’t help admiring “the glee with which Sofia is getting her revenge.

The Penguin premiered on Sept. 19 and concluded its first season on Nov. 10, with the finale simulcast on both HBO and Max. There is no word on whether the series will be renewed for a season 2.

The post The Penguin’s Francis Cobb Actresses Pose Together in New BTS Photo appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin is being hailed as one of the best TV shows of the year – and the Finale has universally praised as a high point for the show to go out on. (SPOILERS) The Penguin Episode 8 finally revealed to viewers – beyond any shadow of a doubt – that Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) was a total sociopath, incapable of true love and connection. However, one scene that showrunner Lauren LeFranc and director Jennifer Getzinger ultimately cut from the episode might’ve changed viewer’s perception of that…

Colin Farrell Reveals The Penguin Finale’s Deleted Scene

Colin Farrell and the cast of The Penguin have been out doing press since the finale episode premiered. While speaking with Cinemablend, Farrell revealed that there was a pivotal scene inlcuded in Episode 8:

“There was a scene in the eighth episode where a kid says, ‘You’re the Penguin, aren’t you,’ and then something about his mother. And then I say to him at the end of the scene, ‘You tell your mom, The Penguin takes care of his own.’”

It’s not hard to see why this scene was cut from The Penguin Episode 8: it bucked the thematic trend of the episode. “A Great or Little Thing” was all about stripping away the lies and facade and finally forcing Oz’s mask to fall off, and reveal his true face. That moment comes around the time when his mob rival Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) has his mother Francis’ (Deirdre O’Connell) finger in a cigar-cutter, and Oz still wouldn’t come clean about how he left his brother Jack and Benny to die. By the end of the episode Oz’s true depravity is on full display: he coldly murders his young sidekick Victor (Rhenzy Feliz); keeps his mother captive in a vegetative state (when she made him promise to end her life), and even making his “lady” Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo) dress up as his mom and feed his insatiable ego. Oh, and he also inspired every gang lieutenant in Gotham to kill their boss and serve under him.

With The Penguin Finale painting such a definitive portrait of the monster inside the man, it might’ve been hard for some viewers to reconcile a scene of Oz trying to look like a hero to a kid. It definitely might’ve been too on-the-nose to have The Penguin name-dropped in that way – especially if it was during the scene where Oz steps out in Penguin’s signature suit and top hat. And for a show that rightfully earned its rep as a hard-boiled mob drama, it arguably would’ve been a bit too “comic book-y” in tone. Conceptually, it could’ve worked though: a grim reminder that Penguin is passing down the same misguided impression of greatness on a kid that gangster Rex Calabrese had on him.

The Penguin is now streaming on Max.

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The Penguin is now over, and many fans of DC’s The Batman Universe are still buzzing about how great the show was – right up to its top-rated Finale episode. The Penguin stuck the landing by making some late-game reveals that reframed who the character of Ozwald Cobb (Colin Farrell) really is, and how he sees the world. However, for the viewer, the real experience of getting to know this version of The Penguin only begins when you go back and watch the series again.

As stated, it’s only in the finale of The Penguin that the show fully “reveals” to the audience just how much of a soulless sociopath Oz Cobb really is. However, that’s arguably the biggest “hustle” that The Penguin was playing on viewers all along: making us ever believe that Oz had a “good side” or a “heart,” somewhere inside of him. When you watch the show a second time, only then do you really get insight into the show that Lauren LeFranc was really making.

The Shark That Swims Crooked

The opening scene of The Penguin shocked viewers, as Oz impulsively murders new mob boss Alberto Falcone in cold blood, just minutes into the show. However, the conversation between Oz and Alberto – about Oz’s memory of gangster Rex Calabrese’s fame – takes on a whole new dimension after finding out that not only was Rex nothing like the mythic figure that Oz describes (more a two-bit thug and psychopath), he actually conspired to kill Oz when he was just a young boy.

Oz plunges himself and all of Gotham into an all-out mob war all because Alberto pushes back against his narcissistic delusions of being as great as the false idol he worships. LeFranc makes it clear from the outset that The Penguin is going to be the story of a crooked-swimming shark, trying to eat everything in his way – and that focus never changes.

The Actors Are Working Levels on Levels

Colin Farrell has not been shorted on praise for his performance as Oz Cobb – he’s already a clear frontrunner for the 2025 Emmys. However, while Farrell deserves all the praise for disappearing into Oz Cobb so seamlessly, it’s not until repeat viewing that you begin to understand how many levels Farrell is really working on.

We now know Oz Cobb’s history with his family – killing his brothers Jack and Benny, the toxic mother-son relationship based on a lie. Rewatching the show, it’s even more impressive to notice and realize that Farrell is conveying all that twisted history in his performance, the entire time. Oz’s mannerisms and micro-reactions to mentions of family, or the stories he tells about his mother and brothers, Rex, and his neighborhood – they’re all weapons of manipulation, and watching Oz spin those fabrications becomes the real fascination: the portrait of a total sociopath, masterfully executed by the writers, directors, and Farrell.

The same goes for Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone. While a second viewing of The Penguin doesn’t necessarily change your perception of Sofia’s arc, what does change is the context of how we see her. Sofia was surrounded by sociopath men (Oz, her father), who had no problem using her up and throwing her away. In short: she never really had a chance to escape her life unscathed – making it even more of a feat that she is able to rise and take power like she does.

The other supporting characters in The Penguin – like Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) or Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell) – look like tragic figures from the start upon rewatch, now that you know they are all chum for Oz to feed off.

A True Villain Origin

Most of all, rewatching The Penguin is a whole new experience of watching one of Batman’s most nefarious foes rise to power – and knowing that he’s the sort of utterly depraved lunatic that it will take a hero like Batman to finally bring to justice.

The Penguin is now streaming on Max.

The post The Penguin: You Don’t Really Understand the Series Until You Watch It Twice appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin‘s finale delivered a moment that felt strikingly familiar to seasoned superhero TV viewers — a last-minute costume upgrade that served as a bridge to future big-screen appearances. If you feel like you’ve seen that before, there’s an explanation. Marvel Studios has been pulling the same trick for years now.

In the MCU, Costume Reveals Tease Upcoming Movies

When Marvel Studios launched its slate of Disney+ shows, it established a clear pattern for introducing new lead characters. These series weren’t just telling contained stories; they were actively preparing heroes for their subsequent big-screen appearances, often through significant costume upgrades in their finales.

For instance, Wanda Maximoff’s transformation into the fully realized Scarlet Witch in WandaVision‘s finale carried over directly into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Likewise, Kamala Khan spends the entirety of Ms. Marvel slowly building her superhero uniform, which she wears for the final fight of the show. Unsurprisingly, that’s the uniform she has in The Marvels. To hammer this point down, Sam Wilson’s journey in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier culminated with him donning a Wakandan-made Captain America suit, which he proudly wears in the Captain America: Brave New World trailers.

Even MCU characters that still had not made their theatrical debut, such as Kate Bishop and Wiccan, also had their “suit up” moment. Since rumors are running amok about a possible New Avengers project in the MCU, they likely will both get the chance to show off their new Disney+ costumes on the silver screen.

The Penguin Takes a Note From Marvel’s Book

The Penguin has little to do with Marvel’s average Disney+ show. Its grounded approach often deviates from comic book canon in favor of a realistic take on GothamCity. Plus, the series’ approach to violence meant The Penguin was crafted for mature audiences instead of the PG-13 public. Yet, The Penguin mimics the Marvel Studios approach when it comes to Oz’s final episode transformation.

The Penguin‘s finale mirrors this proven formula with remarkable precision. Throughout the series, we witness Oz Cobb’s journey from a Falcone family enforcer to a rising force in Gotham’s criminal landscape. As a nobody pretending to be a big shot, Oz tries to eat in fancy restaurants and don expensive clothes. Still, it’s easy to see he is faking until he makes it, and he is not truly part of Gotham City’s upper class.

Nevertheless, just as Marvel used Disney+ to evolve their characters visually and narratively, The Penguin uses its eight episodes to justify Oz’s eventual embrace of his comic book role as one of Batman’s nemeses – and that comes with a cosmetic overhaul. The final reveal of his dapper suit and top hat feels earned because we’ve witnessed every step of his ascension to the top of the criminal food chain (and turn into a monster in the process). So, instead of just rewarding comic book fans with a clever Easter egg, the king’s new clothes reveal his newfound position of power.

The Penguin Anticipates Oz’s Looks for The Batman: Part II

With The Batman: Part II on the horizon, this pattern creates an opportunity for the franchise. The sequel has the chance to use this formula to reinforce its themes by allowing Oz’s new costume to persist throughout the film rather than treating it as a momentary flourish to end a TV show. 

In the case of The Penguin, that would be even more important than any Marvel production. More than fancy clothes, the jacket and top hat that Oz sports at the final moments of The Penguin is a testament to his cunning. After eight episodes of blood and sweat, Oz came out on top and became the kingpin of Gotham City, wrestling his newfound wealth out of the hands of Sofia Gigante. To represent the danger of a true Batman nemesis, Oz must maintain his hold on Gotham’s underworld. That means keeping the comic accurate look, which echoes his position of power. 

Furthermore, by the end of the series, Oz is playing the crime game on a whole new level, having decided to add politics to his toolbox. From that perspective, the Penguin’s new costume also doubles as camouflage, allowing him to mingle with the City Council of Gotham and use them to his favor. Because of that, the next cinematic appearance of Oz should reflect his character development on the show, represented by his wardrobe change.

All eight episodes of The Penguin are currently streaming on Max. The Batman: Part II arrives in theaters on October 2, 2026.

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The Penguin Finale has fans Matt Reeves’ The Batman Universe on high, ready for the arrival of The Batman: Part II in 2026. While The Penguin has shown there is massive potential in expanding The Batman’s world beyond the main film series, that revelation is coming at a time when James Gunn and DC Studios are trying to launch a whole new DC Universe franchise, which will introduce its own version of Batman and his world.

In the past, Gunn and his DC Studios co-head Peter Safran have maintained that Warner Bros. and DC Studios will keep with the tradition of taking the “Elseworlds” approach to DC content. In that format, there can be standalone franchises for popular characters like Batman, independent of the shared universe. However, we’ve also had years of examples to teach us that this approach doesn’t necessarily work in the mainstream marketplace – whether it was the Fox-Marvel Universe vs. the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy vs. Zack Snyder’s DCEU; or most recently Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and its push-pull tensions with the MCU.

Why DC Studios Would End The Batman After Part II

Warner Bros. and DC Studios may want to avoid the mistakes of the past and put their money and focus on promoting one version of DC’s flagship characters at a time, for maximum mainstream exposure. The idea of Robert Pattinson’s Batman continuing alongside Flash director Andy Muschietti’s Batman reboot The Brave and the Bold seems more and more unlikely – no matter how popular Reeves’ franchise is getting.

Just look at the timing: right now, The Batman: Part II has a theatrical release date of October 2, 2026; The Brave and the Bold has no set release date yet, but fans and industry insiders have been speculating that it won’t release until The Batman movies are done. With the level of interconnected storytelling the DCU will be doing (starting with Gunn’s Superman movie next summer), it’s nearly impossible to imagine getting a lot of DCU TV shows and films that don’t refer to Batman, the Bat Family, or Gotham City, which means that the new DCU Batman actor would probably need to be revealed sooner before later.

There again lies the kind of brand confusion that Warner Bros. has dealt with before – and could understandably want to avoid dealing with again. Two Batman characters appearing in two separate – and very different style – franchises, in the same years? There might not be enough room at the box office for that – even for Batman.

James Gunn Said There Can Be Two Batmen

Early this year, James Gunn debunked the idea that The Batman movies and The Brave and the Bold couldn’t co-exist, when he outright told a fan “No,” in regards to a rumor that Brave and the Bold was only coming after The Batman films.

That response suggests that not only could The Brave and the Bold arrive before The Batman movies are done, but it could indeed arrive near Reeves’ sequel – in, say, 2027. Marvel will be deep into its bag of heavy-hitter franchises, with Avengers: Doomsday, Spider-Man 4, and Avengers: Secret Wars all hitting theaters between Summer 2026 and Summer 2027. DC could actually do something unprecedented and hit fans with a double dose of Batman to offset Marvel’s box office dominance? If any DC character has a chance to collect on a double-dip, it’s pretty much Batman.

Did The Penguin Change Things?

There is another “Option C” way this whole thing could play out: key delays between The Batman films, bolstered by TV spinoffs in between. At the time of writing this, HBO’s The Penguin has just aired its finale episode to overwhelming critical acclaim, massive buzz with fans, and a cemented status as one of the big frontrunners for the 2025 Emmy Awards. The fact that The Penguin was the subject of a show – which had almost no Batman presence – and was as successful as it’s been… It pretty much just proves that Matt Reeves has created a Noir-style playground in his version of Gotham that fans are engaged with, and enjoy being immersed in.

There’s already a lot of speculation starting up, imagining what other characters from Batman lore we could see in TV spinoffs. It would easy for DC and Warner Bros. to let The Batman: Part II out in theaters in 2026, then put the third film on the back-burner until 2029 or 2030, with another prestige TV series to fill the gap. After all, fans of The Batman are used to waiting: the first film took from 2019 (or earlier) to 2022 before it hit the screen; the sequel isn’t arriving until four years later. A 2030 release date for The Batman: Part III would be right on par, and would provide an elegant dance of having one Batman at a time spotlighted on the big screen, while the other franchise continues world-building through either TV spinoffs or crossovers with other projects (in the DCU).

Matt Reeves recently signaled that the TV front is definitely a new lane of possiblitiy after Penguin, stating in a recent interview that:

“To see that the show [The Penguin] is being embraced is really, really exciting. We have been talking about doing other shows… I think the idea of being able to put a lens on these characters is a really exciting idea. It’s about cities and their dysfunction and the world and its dysfunction, which is what Batman stories are all about. They’re all about Gotham being a place that should be better. And you can have that experience of this most novelistic epic crime saga, but you also just get these separate experiences. They have their own dramatic value… and the idea is to do these other stories in the same way.”

Will DC Studios End The Batman Franchise After Part II?

Right now there’s no reason to think that doom is in the cards for Matt Reeves’ Batman Universe – especially after Penguin just hit such a big home run.

More likely, some big discussions are happening at Warner Bros./DC Studios right now – and there’s possibly some big tension within those discussions. Gunn and Safran may prefer a clean slate to launch their new DCU Batman, but their franchise is still untested, while Reeves and The Batman Universe are only gaining more acclaim across movie, TV, and streaming platforms.

This issue may get a pin put in it for the next year, when Gunn launches his big Superman reboot film in theaters, as well as Peacemaker Season 2 and the Creature Commandos animated series on TV/streaming. Once the first data about the DCU success (or lack thereof) are in, Warner Bros. and DC could choose to push all their chips onto one bet or spread them across the table. Stay tuned.

For now, The Batman and The Penguin are streaming on Max.

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[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 8, “A Great or Little Thing.”] “The world wasn’t built for guys like us,” Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) told Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) after taking the teenager under his wing in the first episode of The Penguin. “That’s why we gotta take whatever we decide is ours. ‘Cause no one’s gonna give it to us. Not without a fight.” In the end, Oz and Vic did just that: together, they took what was left of the Falcone and Maroni crime families from Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti) and performed a coup against the remaining gangs by convincing the deputies to turn on their bosses.

After consolidating power with control of the Triads, the Burnley Town Massive, LoBoys, the Sullivans, and the Odessa Mob, Oz ended the gang war by pinning it all on Sofia and having her recommitted in Arkham State Hospital. He leveraged his position with corrupt Councilman Sebastian Hady (Rhys Coiro) to come out clean as a whistle, winning out over the woman who used his mother against him while seeking revenge for the murder of her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen).

RELATED: The Penguin Might Not Be the Villain in The Batman Part II — and the Comics Explain Why

In the end, it was a Pyrrhic victory for Oz: his beloved mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), suffered a stroke that left her in a vegetative state and unable to tell him she’s proud of her last-surviving son for becoming the kingpin of Gotham City. “Thanks for taking a chance on me. For taking me in,” Victor told Oz. “You’re family to me.”

Calling their chance encounter kismet, Oz put his arms around Vic and told him, “I can’t take you with me this time. That’s the thing about family… it’s your strength. It drives you.” But family “makes you weak, too,” Oz said as he viciously strangled Vic to death. “I can’t have that no more. It’s too much.” In-between gasps for air and apologies, Vic died as Oz snuffed out the only family he had left. “It wasn’t for nothing.”

Why Did Penguin Kill Victor?

“I think it’s what he says while he’s committing the act,” Feliz exclusively told ComicBook. “It’s that he knows that he’s vulnerable in this way now. He’s just experienced what it’s like to lose his mother, to have his mother taken from him.”

Because Sofia was able to use Oz’s mother against him, ultimately causing the stroke that left her catatonic and nearly costing Oz his life, Vic had to die.

“When you view someone as family, it’s a strength, like he says,” Feliz continued. “And so I think he wants to become something almost impenetrable. And the way he thinks he can do that is [killing his weakness]. Everyone else, I think, sees it as, ‘You don’t have to do this.’ He sees it as, ‘The only way that I can be invulnerable is to snuff out this flame here.'”

RELATED: How The Penguin Sets up The Batman 2

In his final moments, Vic begged Oz not to kill him. As for what was going through Vic’s mind as Oz’s embrace turned into a chokehold, it was “shock.”

“Shock is what I was going for,” Feliz pointed out. “You’re getting choked to death. You know, everything you’re doing is survival at that point. It’s instinct. You’re kicking, you’re grabbing, you’re pleading. You don’t know what’s going on, you don’t know why it’s going on. You don’t really understand what’s happening.”

Ultimately, Oz betrayed both members of his remaining family. He promised his mother he wouldn’t let her live if her condition worsened, only to put her up in his penthouse while he molded Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo) in his mother’s image. And he betrayed Vic, choosing to kill the kid who saw Oz as family rather than a monster.

“You put so much love and trust in this person, for him to be betraying you like that,” Feliz said. “I think it’s just like, ‘What? Oh my God. No, please. Please don’t. Please stop.'” As for whether Oz was always going to kill Vic or if he gave into his darker impulses when he admitted his victory “don’t feel like it should,” Feliz turned the question toward Farrell.

“That’s a great question. I want to know what what would Colin would say about it,” Feliz said. “When was the decision made [by Oz]? I really have no idea. I’m in the debates with everybody else.”

“I really don’t know, to be honest,” the actor continued. “I go back and forth and I think, in that moment, sometimes I think he knew it from the moment when he takes me out to the river bank [that] he knows what he’s going to do. Then I really go back and forth.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All episodes of HBO’s The Penguin are now streaming on Max.

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For a few episodes, The Penguin played around with the idea Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb would be a sort of antihero. After all, he presented himself as a working man, willing to upset the status quo for the people of Crown Point. Of course, that was nothing more than a façade, and The Penguin’s finale did a masterful job hammering down Oz’s villainy.

The Penguin’s Altruism Was Always a Sham

Let’s get straight to the point: Oz is not a good guy. Whenever he’s cornered, he’s quick to throw anyone under the bus if he can escape a tough situation with his feathers unruffled. In short, Oz’s pathological relationship with the truth means that his every grandiose speech about unity is nothing more than a scam to get him more power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld.

Nevertheless, when Oz talks about how the city stole his brothers from him, you can imagine that there is a heart beneath all those prosthetic layers. In addition, Oz’s affection for his mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), and his protégé, Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), seemed genuine. Together, these emotional hooks help paint the picture of a man who’s cruel but who has been forced into a life of violence by Gotham City’s glaring social inequality and is willing to go the extra mile for those he loves.

Episode 7 of The Penguin shattered fans’ expectations by revealing that Oz is responsible for his brothers’ deaths. The episode also explains Oz’s unhealthy need to have his mother’s love, a force that pushes him to commit all sorts of atrocities. That wasn’t enough, though. For The Penguin to cement its titular character as the villain he truly is, the limited series’ final episode needed to deconstruct Oz’s humanity so there’s no shadow of doubt about him being a narcissistic sociopath. The Finale excels in this endeavor by hitting the audience exactly where it hurts: Vic and Francis.

Francis’ Fate Shows Oz’s Sociopathy

While The Penguin has its fair share of touching scenes, one of the show’s best happens in Episode 6, when Oz finds his mother freezing in a bathtub. By then, dementia had begun to claim Francis’ mobility, trapping her under cold water for the entire evening. Sitting on the cold tiles with a towel wrapped around her, Francis reveals she fears nothing more than becoming a vegetable, so she asks Oz to take her out when the time comes. Oswald accepts the difficult task, promising to honor his mother’s wishes.

Alas, in The Penguin’s finale, Francis has a stroke due to the stress of being kidnapped by Sofia and forced to relieve the death of her sons. After that, she can no longer speak or move by herself. It was time for Oswald to honor his vows and give Francis the clean death she hoped for. Instead, Oz strapped her to a hospital bed inside a penthouse so that she could watch Gotham City from above. The tear rolling down her cheek is proof that Francis is somewhat aware of her situation, even though she’s trapped in a flesh prison for the remainder of her days.

Some could argue Francis is getting her due punishment. She did weaponized Oz to get her the life of luxury she wanted as a consolation prize for the loss of her sons. Still, Oswald’s choice to keep his mother alive proves he never truly cared about her. Oz is addicted to praise and wants his mother to love him, but she doesn’t matter as a human being. For him, she’s not a person with specific needs that should be respected but only an object whose worth is measured by its ability to validate his fantasies. That’s also why Oz has Eve dressing up as his mother and telling him how good he is.

An Autonomous Victor Is a Threat

While Francis’ fate is atrocious, Vic has arguably the most tragic fate in The Penguin. Over the season, we watched as Vic slowly embraced a life of crime, inspired by the class-divide lies Oz fabricated to justify his gruesome actions. Once he kills someone in cold blood to protect the secret of Oz’s underground Bliss lab, there’s no turning back for Vic. Even so, it’s the finale that cements Vic’s transformation, as he stages the coup that removes every gang leader from the equation and puts in charge their second-in-command.

Vic’s clever maneuver ultimately saves Oz’s life. At the same time, it shows how brilliant and dangerous the young man can be. It’s no wonder Oswald decides to choke Vic with his bare hands. From the moment he proved himself to be more than a loyal puppy to be ordered around, Vic became a potential threat to Oz’s criminal empire. Vic’s genuine admiration for Oz and the fact that he considers the Penguin his family sets some high standards for the mobster. Oswald can’t have Vic by his side, questioning his actions, especially now that they both know what he’s capable of.

Sure, Oz tries to frame the murder as “removing a weakness,” but that’s just another lie added to his devious machinations. The Penguin is a villain through and through, and anyone who ever thought he could be redeemable was just falling for his empty words. At least now, watching the Dark Knight beat him to a pulp in The Batman: Part II will be even more satisfying.

The Penguin is now streaming on Max.

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The Penguin has delivered some truly heartwrenching moments throughout the season, and several shocking ones as well, and yet somehow the finale found a way to go above and beyond in both categories. There have been several deaths that marked key turning points in season 1, but Penguin saved some of the biggest impacts for last, with several deaths and 1 near-death experience all carrying major ramifications for not just The Penguin but also the entirety of Gotham City. We’re breaking down everything that happened right here, and big spoilers are coming in from here on out.

A Mother’s Hate

Oz and his mother Francis had a complicated relationship by all accounts even before the previous episode, which unearthed the revelation that Oz killed his brothers. The relationship somehow becomes considerably more complex in the finale after it’s revealed that Francis knew Oz killed them, which is brought to light thanks to Sofia and Dr. Rush. They’ve captured Francine and Oz, and Sofia is determined to finally see that brutal truth see the light of day.

After a traumatic confrontation that has Francis finally tell Oz she hates him and stab him in the stomach with a broken bottle, she starts to see her two dead sons, who appear drenched in water, and after speaking to them she starts to mumble and her vision is blurred, leading to her passing out on the floor. While she is taken to the hospital, it’s revealed later that she suffered a massive stroke, and because of her overall health and age, she isn’t likely to recover.

After Oz scores a new spot in Gotham’s underworld, he finally has the penthouse he promised her so long ago and has her in a hospital bed looking out at the city from his new home. He talks to her about finally making it and doing exactly what he promised, and as the camera gets closer to Francis, you can see tears start to flow from her eyes, but she is still unable to move or communicate.

[RELATED: How The Penguin Sets Up The Batman Part II]

A Violent Takeover

While Francis is still alive, her fate isn’t that hopeful or inspiring, even if Oz thinks he’s finally giving her what she wants. The way he makes that happen is in the form of a violent takeover, though it isn’t just Sofia he dethrones. Sofia puts a bounty on Oz’s head to all of the various crime families in Gotham, and whoever delivers him first gets her kingdom, as she is leaving Gotham behind.

It’s Link who reaches out to Vic to see if Oz is with him, but Link is the one person who helped prevent Vic from getting shot during Vic’s passionate speech about taking back their city. Sofia gets a call that says the family has captured Oz, and they meet up for the transfer, but then Oz smiles and Link and the rest of the family kill Francois and all of Sofia’s men.

As Oz explains to Sofia, the top guys were all too busy feeding themselves to notice everyone around them was starving, and Link is just one of the people who feel this way. That’s what leads to all of the crime family heads having their crews assassinate them in various ways, and they are all loyal in some way to Penguin. All of the top guys are now dead, and new leaders take their place from here on out.

The Death That Hurts Most

After the takeover, Oz and Vic are looking out on the city and sharing a drink, taking a moment to celebrate their victory. Oz tells Vic that he did a great job, and that talking to Link was a smart move. Oz also says that he couldn’t have done this without Vic, and it’s just the two of them.

Then Vic tells Oz thank you for taking a chance on him, and that he looks at him not just as a boss or ally, but as family. Oz says “Oh Vic”, and then says the next place he goes Vic can’t go with him. Vic asks what he means, and Oz says he’s learned he can’t have family be a weak point. He has his arm around Vic and then locks in a hold and starts to choke Vic. Vic keeps struggling and telling Oz to stop, but Oz looks the other way as he tells Vic he’s a great kid with a great heart.

It’s a heartbreaking sequence, especially when Vic stops fighting back. Oz lets Vice slump to the ground and then rifles through his wallet and takes his cash and his license. Oz looks at his license and then throws it into the water as he walks away.

What did you think of The Penguin finale? You can talk all things Penguin and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb and on Bluesky @knightofoa.

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The Penguin Finale Episode had some major storylines to pay off – from Oz Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) gang war with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) to the final transition that made Oz go from street-level gangster to “The Penguin” we know from Batman lore. In the midst of all that, The Penguin Finale also had to deliver us out of this dark, mob world side-story back into the more fantastical world of The Batman movies. In order to do that, showrunner Lauren LeFranc and executive producer Matt Reeves made sure that some key characters from The Batman (2022) made an appearance in The Penguin Episode 8.

The Penguin: Every Character From The Batman Who Cameos in the Finale

Mayor Bella Reál

Bella Reál (Jayme Lawson) makes a second appearance in The Penguin, after first appearing in TV footage during the premiere episode (see above). This time, she’s seen live in the flesh, as Oz travels to Gotham City Hall to have a game-changing meeting with corrupt city councilman Sebastian Hady (Rhys Coiro). Oz successfully frames Sofia Falcone to take the fall for all of his criminal exploits during the series, and the entire mob war, giving the councilman a major career boost in exchange for opening the doors of the wealthy elite/political circuit to Penguin. On the way out of City Hall, Oz spots Mayor Reál heading up the stairs to her office, flanked by staff, trying to address how to deal with the growing number of calamities around Gotham. Little does the new mayor realize, there’s already a dirty rat (or rather, penguin) wriggling his way into the shadow of her new “anti-corruption” administration. But Oz clearly has his eyes on his next prize, and the mayor’s office is it.

GCPD’s Chief Bock

Chief Mackenzie Bock (Con O’Neill) and his gravely drawl appeared in The Penguin Episode 5 when the lawman came to investigate the Falcone Family Massacre. Bock is seen once again during the Finale, during a montage in which he makes a big show of leading a team of GCPD officers to finally seize the Falcone mansion and proclaim a formal end to the long-running Falcone-Maroni mob war.

Selina Kyle / Catwoman

Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) left Gotham for the neighboring town of Bludhaven – but apparently, she’s been keeping one ear to the Gotham streets. Catwoman doesn’t make a full appearance in The Penguin finale, but definitely makes her presence felt: When Sofia Falcone ultimately gets sent back to Arkham Asylum, she eventually gets mail delivered to her cell by her ally/lover Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi), who makes sure she sees one letter in particular – from someone proclaiming to be her half-sister. We don’t get to see what’s in the letter, but whatever’s written there, it leaves a smile on Sofia’s face. That can’t be good for Oz, or…

The Batman

Like Catwoman, Robert Pattinson’s Batman doesn’t make a direct cameo appearance in The Penguin Finale – but his presence is felt. During the final sequence of the show, Oz Cobb finally comes into his own as “The Penguin,” securing control of Gotham’s underworld while also establishing a wealthy, white-collar public persona for himself – at great personal cost. Penguin is morbidly celebrating his “victory” in the penthouse he always dreamed of, dancing the night away with his longtime prostitute “girlfriend” Eve (Carmen Ejogo). Oz has Eve dressed up like his mom (who got left in a vegetative state), feeding him praise about being the King of Gotham, saying nothing can stop him anymore. Outside the penthouse, the Bat Signal flashes into the night sky, as a reminder that forces of law and order still exist in Gotham to challenge Penguin’s reign.

The Penguin is now streaming on Max; The Batman: Part II has a release date of October 2, 2026.

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The Penguin has shown the same level of ambition as its titular character for launching a Batman movie spinoff series that would not be centered on Batman. And yet, over seven weeks The Penguin (mostly) proved it was worthy of being on the airwaves without needing to lean on cameos and/or name-drops from Bruce Wayne or Batman – at least until the cliffhanger of the penultimate chapter. The Penguin Episode 7 ended with Sofia Falcone carrying out a bombing that was so devastating, that fans practically demanded that Batman show up to answer for it.

Does The Batman Appear In The Penguin Finale?

Sort of. Batman finally gets acknowledgment in the very last moments of The Penguin’s final scene – via his iconic Bat-signal, which lights up the night sky over Gotham. It’s a symbolic off-ramp of sorts, with The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc steering the character and the larger Batman Universe out of the mob drama side story she told, and back into the fast lane of Matt Reeves Batman movie franchise, which will continue with The Batman: Part II in 2026.

The Penguin’s Batman “Cameo” Explained (SPOILERS)

In The Penguin Finale episode “A Great or Little Thing” Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) had to face his gangster rival Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) head-on, in order to save his mother Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell). Oz manages to rescue his mother from Sofia and survive the gangland power struggle between the various Gotham mobs she started, by enticing every one of the gangs’ second-in-command to kill their way to top spot in one massive coup.

Oz ultimately doesn’t kill Sofia: instead, he cuts a new deal with the corrupt councilman on the Falcone payroll to frame “The Hangman” for the entire Falcone-Maroni mob war, the new drug Bliss flooding the streets, and the bombing of Crown Point. Sofia goes back to Arkham, and Oz uses his new status as a mob boss to level-up out of the streets and into Gotham’s political circuit.

The cost is high, though: Francis is left in a vegetative state after suffering a stroke during the showdown with Sofia; Oz is broken emotionally at winning the crime war but losing his “ma,” and brutally murders his right-hand man Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) on the notion that significant emotional attachments only weaken him. “Penguin” is left to be the king of his own twisted kingdom: living in a top penthouse, with his mother (who begged for mercy killing if she became debilitated) as his prisoner, forcing his prostitute “girlfriend” Eve (Carmen Ejogo) to dress as his mom, dance with him, and shower him with motherly pride.

It’s only when Eve is stroking Oz’s ego, telling him nothing can stop him now, do we get a shot of the Bat signal flashing over the sky outside the penthouse, reminding us that Oz’s struggle to hold onto his power, may soon be even harder than getting it.

Where Has Batman Been?

It’s now on Matt Reeves and the makers of The Batman: Part II to provide a reasonable explanation for why Batman has surfaced to react to a major mob war – one that included the Falcone family mass murder and boss Sal Maroni’s brazen prison escape – or the terrorist bombing of the Crown Point neighborhood, something Batman should probably be more sensitive to, following the Riddler’s attack on the city.

Saying Bruce Wayne was still in Gotham, but didn’t suit up to deal with things in the streets seems like crazy work. Then again with the level of the focused world and character-building The Penguin accomplished, we can give LeFrance and Reeves the benefit of the doubt that there is a larger plan in place, and a reasonable explanation to come.

The Penguin is streaming on Max.

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The Penguin Finale Episode “A Great or Little Thing” brought the gang war between Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) to a violent end – but more surprising than all the mob violence and bloodshed was the emotional damage the series ends up dealing out. Episode 8 forced Oz, Sofia, and Oz’s mom Franics Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell) into the same room, where Sofia applied a sadistic amount of pressure to get the Cobb family tensions to finally bubble over and explode. And, thanks to the flashback sequences in both Episodes 7 and 8 of The Penguin, we found out there were indeed several terrible secrets between mother and son, just waiting to be ignited.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

The Penguin Finale once again takes us back to into the past, weeks after a young Oz (Ryder Allen) left his brothers Jack and Benny to die in a sewer tunnel that overflowed during a rainstorm. We find out that Franchis found out that Oz lied to her – that he was responsible for locking his brothers in the tunnel in order to have her all to himself. Francis doesn’t think she can live with turning a blind eye to how evil Oz truly is, so she calls local gangster Rex Calabrese (Louis Cancelmi) over and works out a plan to lure Oz out on a nice mother-son date, and then have him killed.

Francis takes Oz out to the local nightclub where they dine and dance all night – only Oz doesn’t realize it’s a final supper, and that Rex is hovering nearby to give him the “treat” of a fatal ride in his car. However, when Oz makes an impassioned speech to his mom, praising the woman she is and promising to give her the life she deserves, Francis decides to heed Rex’s earlier advice, and use Oz as her dedicated soldier in the crime world. Francis ulitmately waves Rex off, deciding to keep Oz by her side, with Rex providing him tutelage on the gangster life.

Why The Penguin Finale’s Flashback Changes Everything

There was a lot of deabt after The Penguin Episode 7 flashback about whether Oz knowingly killed his brothers, and whether or not Francis knew about it. The Episode 8 flashback answers both those questions, and adds the new twist of revealing dimensions of how Francis feels about Oz that we never knew before. By the time that Sofia has Francis’s finger in a cigar cutter, and Oz still refuses to confess the truth about his brothers, the full impact of Francis’s breakdown and her ultimate confession to Oz (that she’s always known he’s an emotionally-weak monster, and should have let Rex kill him) hits that much harder.

The ripples of impact don’t stop there: by revealing that Francis conspired with Rex to kill Oz, the show firmly establishes the sick irony of Oz’s life: that his most treasured emotional connection (his mom) and the rolemodel for his life as a gangster (Rex Calabrese) are all based on lies, from people who didn’t love him, but saw ways to use him. As much as Penugin is a mastermind, he’s also been a mark since he was just a boy, adding a layer of twisted dark humor to the fact that this series begins with Oz killing Alberto Falcone, over his self-deluded impression of Rex.

It’s also wonderfully complicated that the knot of blame between Oz being a monster by nature, and Francis being a mother who nutured that monster, is one that may never be fully untangled…

The Penguin is streaming on Max.

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Sunday night sees the release of The Penguin episode 8 and with it the conclusion of the first season of The Batman spinoff, but is that the end of the story? Since before The Penguin series premiered it has been spoken about as if it was a limited series, an event connecting The Batman to to the upcoming The Batman Part II. To date there has been no word about The Penguin continuing beyond the initial order of episodes from HBO, but the show’s popularity has only skyrocketed since its premiere, could that lead to a renewal order?

The short answer, as of this writing, is no, it does not appear that season 2 of The Penguin will happen. However plans like this do sometimes change and The Batman director Matt Reeves has already alluded to the TV future of this corner of DC. There are two major reasons why a season 2 of The Penguin seems unlikely, the biggest being that the show’s act as a bridge between The Batman and The Batman Part II likely doesn’t need another set of episodes before that movie (not to mention the timing wouldn’t really work out). Reeves himself has already confirmed that series star Colin Farrell will return in the sequel, so his standing in the world of The Batman will be clear as the series ends and we head toward the feature film sequel.

The second major reason that The Penguin season 2 seems unlikely is Farrell, who has made it clear that doing another batch of episodes is not really something he’s eager to repeat. Speaking in an interview with Total Film earlier this year, Farrell was asked about the potential for a renewal, replying: “I don’t know, man. Don’t get me wrong — I loved it — but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f-ing wanted it to be finished. I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’”

RELATED: The Penguin Officially Has a Major Batman Problem Heading Into the Finale

He added, “I was still grateful, and still honored — I grew up watching Burgess Meredith [in the ‘60s Batman TV series], and then Danny DeVito [in 1992’s Batman Returns] was my Penguin — so being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged. But by the end of it…”

Series showrunner Lauren LeFranc offered a slightly more hopeful take on the potential of The Penguin as a continuing series, telling The Direct: “We put it all out on the table. I think that in order to do a second season, we have to feel like we can top ourselves. We have to feel like there’s something more there to really dig into. I mean, I really care about all these characters, even if they’re terrible people.”

Regarding the television future of The Batman and its characters, Matt Reeves recently spoke about where they might go, seemingly alluding to the TV shows focusing on individual characters in-between movies (and also them being one-and-done stories). Speaking with Interview, Reeves said: “We have been talking about doing other shows….You can have that experience of this almost novelistic epic crime saga, but you also just get these separate experiences. They have their own dramatic value. So, Oz’s story is Oz’s story, and the idea is to do these other stories in the same way.”

One element of this entire puzzle that might leave some fans wondering, and which does seem a little telling, is the way that The Penguin is present on the MAX streaming service. When viewers select The Penguin and are given the episodes to choose to watch, they’re all listed as “S1E1,” “S1E2,” etc, which stands in stark contrast to HBO’s other limited series shows on the service which brand their episodes as just “Episode 1,” “Episode 2,” etc. This was perhaps done to leave some wiggle room over whether The Penguin will be renewed for season 2 or not, but in the grand scheme of the series this is mostly circumstantial evidence rather than direct proof or confirmation about The Penguin‘s future.

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Colin Farrell believes he will reprise his role as Oz Cobb, aka the Penguin, in The Batman Part II, but admits he hasn’t seen a script yet. During his appearance on The Jess Cagle Show with Julia Cunningham, the actor addressed his future in the franchise. “I have no idea what the second film is gonna be,” Farrell said. “I heard Penguin features in it. I haven’t read it.”

In the interview, Farrell also touched on where The Batman Part II can go on the heels of The Penguin, which is gearing up for its finale. “There’s been so much pipe laid. It’d be interesting to see where it goes from here, you know?” he said. “But he would be quite different.”

Farrell first played the Penguin in 2022’s The Batman, serving as a secondary antagonist for Robert Pattinson’s iteration of the Caped Crusader. It marked the first time since 1992’s Batman Returns that the classic villain factored into a live-action Batman movie. Thanks to Farrell’s transformative performance, this version of the character left an impression on audiences, establishing the foundation for the HBO series The Penguin. Set in the immediate aftermath of the Riddler’s devastating attack in The Batman, the show chronicles Oz’s attempt to seize control of Gotham’s criminal underworld, matching wits with rivals such as Sofia Falcone and Sal Maroni. The Penguin earned widespread acclaim, with performances from Farrell and Cristin Milioti cited as highlights.

[Related: The Penguin Showrunner Confirms Series Sets Up The Batman Sequel]

While The Batman was a well-received box office hit, it’s taken some time for the sequel to move forward. Originally scheduled to premiere in 2025, the Batman Part II release date has been delayed until October 2026. Plot details are unknown, but it’s been reported director Matt Reeves plans to start production next year. Despite the tumultuous road his Batman story has taken thus far (the first film was one of many productions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic), Reeves remains excited about the property and still intends to make a trilogy.

While Farrell doesn’t have a script, the actor has heard correctly. Back in September, Reeves confirmed the Penguin will return in The Batman Part II. The director refers to the franchise as the “Batman Epic Crime Saga,” so it makes sense for a notorious gangster like Oz to continue to play a role in the overarching narrative. Previously, The Penguin was described as “the bridge between the two films,” implying that the series is laying some of the narrative groundwork for the next movie. It’ll be fascinating to see where the story goes in The Batman Part II. Perhaps it will involve Pattinson’s Dark Knight dealing with the fallout of Oz and Sofia’s conflict, coming to blows with other villains looking to make their mark. In Batman’s rogues gallery, there’s no shortage of characters who would seamlessly fit into a sweeping crime drama.

If cameras are to start rolling early next year, it’s likely there will be some Batman Part II updates in the not-too-distant future. Reeves has teased the presence of new villains in the highly anticipated sequel, meaning fans could learn about casting additions sooner rather than later. Once it’s revealed which characters Reeves is utilizing, it’ll be easier to speculate how all the pieces fit and what Oz will be up to. But no matter what happens, odds are the Penguin will be looking to make some noise in Gotham.

The post The Penguin’s Colin Farrell Thinks He’s Returning for The Batman Sequel (But There’s a Catch) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Something has been clear to me since the first episode of The Penguin, and it’s that the spinoff series of The Batman is headed for a depressing end. Very quickly in the first episode of The Penguin, Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb starts making moves to climb the ladder of Gotham’s underworld. This was telegraphed in the final minutes of The Batman itself, but what we saw in The Penguin’s first episode was that he didn’t really have a great plan. Enter Vic, played expertly by Rhenzy Feliz, who offered Oz something he didn’t realize he needed, a friend and confidant. Now six episodes later, with one episode of The Penguin left, I’m certain Vic is going to die and I think Oz will be the one that takes him out.

The Penguin theory: Oz Will Kill Vic in the finale

Since Oz and Vic met each other in the first episode of The Penguin it was clear that Oz was putting on a font, trying to appear like he’s on the same level with his memories of Rex Calabrese from his youth. The threats however that Oz sends Vic’s way don’t carry weight from our perspective, though they clearly scare Vic well enough. But one line that Oz delivers has stuck with me, especially as both characters have made their way up in the world.

Oz Cobb: “You’re gonna do whatever I say or else I’m, uh… gonna murder you and anyone you care about…”

Across the other six episodes of The Penguin, Oz has not only become a major gangster in his own right, but Vic has also clearly become his right hand man with larger ambitions. At the top of episode 5 of The Penguin when Vic returns and helps Oz escape the Maronis, the partnership between the two is made clear. Not only in terms of the fact that they have each other’s backs but that they’re both fully committed.

RELATED: The Penguin Officially Has a Major Batman Problem Heading Into the Finale

Vic: “I only got one shot at this, I see that now.

Oz: “You came back, Vic. Put your ass on the line for me. A hundred Maseratis couldn’t replace that. It’s you and me now kid, til the end.”

Things get taken a step further in the next episode two, giving their partnership a more personal flair. When Vic confesses to Oz that he killed Squid it becomes a tender moment between the two, like a father and son sharing an embrace after a tough decision. Oz even offers some imparting wisdom, telling Vic that he’s both “strong” and adding “(killing) gets easier.” This is the scene when the two have clearly realized that their partnership is rock solid; but it’s also where I can see the heartbreak of the finale already forming. Combining the close bond that Oz and Vic have formed over the series with the origin story elements of Oz’s life that we’ve seen, I know we’re headed for something depressing.

Vic’s story in The Penguin has purposefully been somewhat of a mirror to the rise that Oz himself had when coming up in the underworld, and Oz is going to realize that himself. I don’t know what will happen, but Oz will see something in Vic, or see Vic do something, which will trigger an alarm in his mind. Oz will realize that Vic is just like him, someone with the ability to handle himself in this world.

In the same way that Oz has eliminated all of his competition and anyone that was a level above him he will see that Vic has the same ambitions, and acknowledge that this makes him a threat. Knowing full well that one day Vic will be in the same place as him and may try to usurp him…Oz is absolutely going to kill Vic. He’s going to try and justify it too, he “has to,” in his own mind, knowing that the day will come when the table would turned the other way. He may not even really believe that, but it’s a risk he can’t let linger for the sake of his own future.

To be clear, this outcome feels like where the show has been heading the entire time, not some random surprise ending meant to stun audiences. The Penguin series has done well to humanize Oz as a character, but in the end this is a DC comics villain, one who will have a similar standing when The Batman Part II eventually comes out. Despite giving us an even fuller picture of who Oz is as a character, the series still has to stick the landing with the fact that its lead character is a “bad guy.” Ending the series with this horrific moment will not only complete the image of Oz as The Penguin, a ruthless gangster, but it will put the human side of him in an even more tragic light. Oz will not only become a man that has to maintain a reputation for ruthlessness, but will also keep everyone at arm’s length to maintain his own standing in the world. He’s made a bed of isolation, and he will have to lie in it.

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The Penguin Episode 7, “Top Hat” was a game-changing penultimate chapter of the story, which both looked back at the dark past of Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) and changed the stakes of his war with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) in the present. In the midst of all that, Penguin Episode 7 also made the late-game introduction of a character whose presence has influenced the events of the series from the very beginning – but who we are only now meeting in the flesh.

The Penguin Introduces Rex Calabrese

“Rex Calabrese” is a name that got dropped in the shocking opening scene of The Penguin, and has been a recurring reference point for Oz Cobb during the series. In Oz’s conversations with Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) and Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) he made it clear that in his vision of things, Rex Calabrese was a neighborhood legend – a gangster who showed favor and love to neighborhood kids like Oz. However, in the opening flashback to the life-changing day of Oz’s childhood, we find out that Rex Calabrese was something much different.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

“Top Hat” begins with Oz’s mom, Francis Cobb (Emily Meade), doing bookkeeping for mobster Rex Calabrese. Francis sends her three boys Jack (Owen Asztalos), Benny (Nico Tirozzi), and Oz (Ryder Allen) out in the streets to deliver the book to Rex (Louis Cancelmi); the boys find him on the corner, roughing up a local storekeeper in broad daylight for being overdue on payment. While Jack is cautious about approaching the gangster, Oz is enamored with Rex and brazenly calls out to him. But Rex doesn’t even know Oz is alive, instead showing favor to his older brother Jack, just like Francis does.

The hunger for favor from his mother and surrogate father figure pushes young Oswald over the edge: after meeting with Rex, a game of hide-and-seek with the Cobb boys goes tragically wrong: Oz leaves his brothers locked in a water drainage tunnel, and decides to enjoy the evening with his mom all to himself. When heavy rain starts falling over Gotham, Oz ignores the obvious peril to his brothers and leaves them to die, drowned in the sewer.

The point of the flashback scene is to provide insight into Oswald Cobb’s true pathos. Oz’s entire psychological matrix – his mother as his moral compass; Rex Calabrese as the model for his gangster life and legacy; and the “love” of his family – is a self-constructed mask of lies and self-delusion.

The Penguin: Who is Rex Calabrese? 

In DC lore, Rex Calabrese was introduced in the 2010s Batman Universe comics and has been established as the true father of Selina Kyle/Catwoman (or “Selina Calabrese”). In the underworld, Calabrese earned the nickname “The Lion,” and ruled that jungle until he was dethroned by Carmine “the Roman” Falcone. Calabrese survived the gang war and went into hiding, taking on the name “Leo Leone” when he was eventually caught and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary. Under that alias Calabrese would still influence the underworld from prison, eventually making contact with Catwoman and letting her know her true family legacy. 

The Penguin TV series has reframed Rex Calabrese as a gangster operating in Gotham’s Crown Point neighborhood during Oz Cobb’s youth. It’s unclear at this point if The Batman Universe version of Calabrese has any ties to Catwoman, but we do already know that he has a history with Penguin’s family. There are also a lot of clues that Penguin’s depiction of Rex echoes his comic origin of being a big deal until Carmine Falcone rose to power.

The Penguin airs on HBO and streams on Max.

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The Penguin has walked the tightrope line of offering viewers a Batman spinoff show that doesn’t have Batman in it (yet). To the surprise of many DC fans, the concept has been working well, as Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) have provided all the intrigue needed to carry the series, with a stacked supporting cast to make Gotham’s underworld drama worth tuning in for.

However, The Penguin Episode 7, “Top Hat” had a climactic twist that has created major stakes for the series, heading into the finale: because if Batman doesn’t show up now, it’s going to be a massive hole in the franchise continuity…

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Episode 7 of The Penguin saw Sofia Falcone grab Oz’s mom as a hostage, while Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown) forced Penguin to hand over his new drug supply. Oz managed to once again wobble his way out of the fire, as Sal died in their ensuing fight and Oz’s crew held onto their turf. The victory was short-lived, however: Sofia grew tired of tit-for-tat moves to seize the throne, and sent a bomb into the tunnels to blow up Oz’s entire operation. Oz managed to get out in time (through the same overflow tunnel he left his own brothers to die in), but the blast collapsed an entire city block, leaving the slum neighborhood of Crown Point looking like a Third World warzone.

And therein lies the issue: Up until now, The Penguin has been able to sustain the idea that everything that has happened in this underworld power struggle has been under the radar enough for Batman (Robert Pattinson) not to get involved. After all, The Penguin takes place just weeks after the events of The Batman and Gotham is in a state of emergency following Riddler’s terrorist attack, and the resulting flooding of the city. Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) is no doubt busy in both his civilian guise (as a wealth and power figure aiding in cleanup and rebuilding) and his vigilante guise (battling a surge in crime, and new kinds of villains springing up). In short: It could be believed that Batman is too busy to be worrying about mobsters and crooks killing one another, or too unbothered to intervene – even with headlines about the Falcone Family Massacre flashing over news screens.

However, the explosion in Crown Point no doubt cost innocent people their lives – and more importantly, it’s a clear signal that serious action is going down in that part of the city. After Riddler’s attack, any detonation of an explosive device should have Gotham law enforcement and Batman on the scene immediately, looking to crack heads. And those are exactly the kind of stakes Penguin Episode 7 has set for the finale.

The Penguin: Does Batman Have to Appear In The Finale?

There was already a lot of grousing about the entire Falcone crime family being killed in mass murder and Batman not showing up -so if Batman doesn’t show up in some form or fashion during the finale, in reaction to Sofia’s bombing, The Penguin will have stretched a lot of fans’ belief in this “interconnected universe” to the breaking point. As of Episode 7, fan comments and memes are already springing up, clowning Robert Pattinson’s Batman for his poor job protecting the city. The Dark Knight is creating presence, through his total absence.

Admittedly, Penguin’s creative team has set a precedence for Batman’s “cameo” not to be a heavy-handed scene-stealing moment. The show has been routinely commended for fleshing out the vision of Gotham City director Matt Reeves established in The Batman (2022), without having to do heavy name-drops about or cameos from major Batman characters. We could simply see an image of Batman or the Batmobile on the scene in Crown Point through news footage or some overhead shot and that would be enough; after all, none of the main characters in The Penguin is someone who would want to stick around if Batman was close by.

However, if the show tries to end the story without any reference to Batman getting involved or at leat being aware of what’s occurred, it’s going to feel like a big misstep, and The Batman: Part II is going to have a lot of explaining to do.

The Penguin is airing on HBO and streaming on Max.

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Sunday night’s new episode of The Penguin brought the action of the HBO series to a head, setting up for a surprising conclusion next week. Everything has been leading to this, as Oz Cobb both continue their quest for dominance in Gotham City’s underworld, and it doesn’t feel like there’s a world in which both of them can make it out alive. With the stakes in place, HBO is gearing fans up for the exciting finale ahead. WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for The Penguin! Continue reading at your own risk…

The trailer for the finale of The Penguin, which you can watch in the video above, brings the chaos of the series to the forefront. There is some flashback footage from Oswald’s past, as he asks his mother to make a promise that she won’t give up on him. In the present day, Sofia and Oswald seemingly circle each other, both making dangerous power moves to try and secure a final victory. We see Oswald in the Gotham City courthouse, and Sofia smiling in front of a pillar of flames. What’s going on there is honestly anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to say the finale is going to be hectic.

The penultimate episode of The Penguin culminated in an explosive ending — quite literally. As Oz tried to make a deal with Sofia to get his mother back from her, Sofia sent a present to the Penguin. Her car arrived at his base of operations and he assumed she would be in it. With Salvatore Maroni dead, leaving her without her most powerful ally, Oz clearly thought he could gain the upper hand. When he realized Sofia wasn’t in the car, he was worried he’d find the body of his mother. Instead, he came face-to-face with an explosive.

Oz had time to escape and hide in the water reserve (the same place where he accidentally killed his brothers), but the whole block of Crown Point where his operation was located didn’t get so lucky. The explosion leveled a good chunk of the street. While Oz managed to survive the blast, he was still found by someone working with Sofia, so his troubles are far from over.

[RELATED: The Surprising Connection Between Venom 3 and The Penguin Fans Probably Missed]

One of the big questions heading into this finale is how The Penguin will set up the events of The Batman: Part II. While the Caped Crusader isn’t involved in the story of the show, The Penguin is meant to be a bridge between the first and second Matt Reeves Batman movies, creating a new order in Gotham City and allowing more villains to rise to power. It will set the stage for what Batman has to face in the highly anticipated sequel.

The Penguin‘s finale will air on HBO Sunday night at 9pm ET.

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There has been no shortage of surprises throughout The Penguin to this point. HBO’s DC series hasn’t been the kind of comic book-inspired TV show you might be used to, so most of its surprises have come in the form of harrowing moments or tragic twists, rather than chasing after big Easter eggs or reveals. Another storytelling surprise arrived in the second half of Sunday night’s penultimate episode, resulting in a death scene that it’s safe to say nobody saw coming.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the penultimate episode of The Penguin! Continue reading at your own risk…

Over the course of The Penguin, Oz Cobb has taken advantage of basically every major organized crime figure in all of Gotham, though none more than Sofia Falcone and Salvatore Maroni. We knew that the two of them would be throwing everything they possibly could at Oz, and that it would create some fireworks when that new partnership came face-to-face with the man that took nearly everything from them.

A little over halfway through this new episode, Sal gets to take the shot at Oz that he’s been waiting for. The plan is almost perfectly executed, as Sal finds Oz in a vulnerable situation and takes out several of his men. None of that is particularly surprising, but the ending of their scuffle is what will surely have viewers shocked.

A couple of savvy moves from Penguin’s men left Oz and Sal in a fist fight away from everyone else. It feels like it go either way, until Sal begins clutching his chest and collapsing. The infamous mob boss suffers a heart attack in the middle of the fight and dies, right there in front of his enemy.

Salvatore Maroni dying during a conflict with Oz isn’t exactly a big shock. The fact that he died from a heart attack, however, makes for a surprising and captivating moment of television.

[RELATED: The Twisted Romance at the Heart of The Penguin]

It’s not about the fact that Sal died, it’s about what his death means for Oz. The Penguin wants to defeat his enemies and prove he’s worthy of the spot he has wrestled out of their grasp. Sal’s heart attack takes that opportunity away from Oz. His rival’s death had nothing at all to do with him, leaving him feeling a little helpless and frustrated.

You can see in the way that Oz reacts to Sal’s death he’s having trouble processing it all. He starts talking to the dying Sal and saying things like, “I got you,” just like he did to Bruce Wayne in The Batman. But he didn’t do anything to “get” Sal. The man died of a heart attack, and Oz is trying everything he can to convince himself that it was his doing.

The post The Penguin Episode 7 Kills Off A Major Character in the Most Surprising Way appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 7 is a game-changing episode, which re-frames everything we thought we knew about Oswald “Oz” Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) family history. “Top Hat” opens with a flashback to when Oz was a youth, living in a Crown Point apartment with his “Ma” and brothers, Jack and Benny. However, even hardcore fans of The Batman Universe weren’t prepared for how deep and dark Oz’s story would get from there, as we learn – beyond all shadow of a doubt, that “Penguin” is a villain who is – and always has been – rotten to the core.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!

The Flashback portion of The Penguin Episode 7 looks back on the day that Oz and his brothers were sent out to play the day away by their mother, who was bookkeeping for the mob. Jack was given the big-boy task of delivering the tally to local gangster Rex Calabrese (Louis Cancelmi), before the three Cobb boys decided to play a game of hide-and-seek in their favorite place: the abandoned subway and sewer tunnels.

Earlier scenes in the Cobb home hinted at Oz being the odd man out amongst his brothers, with his crippled leg and heavier weight. More than that, though: Oz is seen almost coveting his mother’s attention – just as he will money and power as an adult – and there’s deep jealousy simmering inside him when his mom gives his brothers her attention, and her trust. Those feelings finally boil over when Jack and Benny decide to drop down a ladder and hide in a water overflow tunnel; when Oz physically struggles to get down the ladder, he gets frustrated with his brothers, screaming that they did it to embarrass him. To turn the tables, Oz shuts the door to the tunnel and leaves his brothers trapped in there.

The sickening turn comes next: Oz goes home and relishes in his mother’s undivided attention, watching a movie and snuggling with her. When it rains, Oz doesn’t bother to get his brothers – he lies to his mother, saying Jack and Benny are going to the movies to see Beetlejuice while plying her with liquor. The scene cuts back and forth between Oz’s utter delight at watching an old movie with his mom, and Jack and Benny desperately screaming for help and banging on the tunnel door, until the rainwater fills the chamber, and the boys’ screams bubble out into sounds of drowning, and then silence. Not only is Oz unbothered by the situation – he’s actually elated while watching the sequence of a top hat-wearing dancer pretending to use his cane to shoot up the rest of the cabaret troupe, re-enforcing Oz’s idealization of the gangster life.

The Penguin: Why Oz Cobb Killing His Brothers Changes Everything

This flashback reframes everything about Oz Cobb and his ethos. Oz’s deepest emotional connection (his mom) is revealed to really be a twisted psychological obsession, and the stories about his family and brothers he wields as weapons of emotional manipulation are just delusions: The Penguin is a sociopath in the truest sense of the word – and always has been.

It’s a masterful stroke for the penultimate episode of the series to make us totally re-examine who the central character is. “Top Hat” raises the emotional stakes of Penguin’s showdown with Sofia Falcone exponentially; with Sofia and Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi) now messing with Francis Cobb’s fragile mind, Oz’s relationship with his mom suddenly feels like it’s under as much threat as her life may be

The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

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Comic Book movies and TV shows are still going strong right now, with Sony-Marvel’s Venom: The Last Dance opening in theaters, while DC’s Batman spinoff The Penguin is earning major acclaim on HBO. Most superhero fans would agree that Venom 3 and The Penguin couldn’t be more different in terms of tone and subject matter; however, they do share something in common: breakout performances by lead actors (Tom Hardy and Colin Farrell, respectively), which are the heart of both franchises.

There’s also a dark weird connection between Venom: The Last Dance and The Penguin – specifically Episode 6, which aired during Venom 3‘s opening weekend:

Did You Spot The Same Actor In Venom 3 & The Penguin?

Actor Jared Abrahamson had quite a week for an aspiring actor: he played a bit role in Venom: The Last Dance as Captain Forrest, a member of Imperium; he also had a recurring role in The Penguin as “Squid,” a local shot-caller and drug dealer operating in the slums neighborhood of Crown Point.

Abrahamson was much more of a background character as Cpt. Forrest in Venom 3: he appeared in scenes as a right-hand-man to Imperium military commander General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor); however, in the film’s third act, the symbiote god Knull sends his Xenophage monsters to attack Imperium’s base at Area 51 resulting in the death or retreat of nearly ever Imperium team member. Forrest’s fate is unknown after the film (though is wiki lists him as “alive”).

RELATED: The Penguin Just Turned One Major Character Into A True Villain

The Penguin gave Jared Abrahamson a much bigger spotlight in Episode 6: his story arc with Penguin’s sidekick Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) came to a head when Squid finally leaned on Victor to set him up with an introduction to Penguin. When Squid goes so far as to threaten Victor with snitching to the cops or rival gangs, Victor takes the drastic step of shooting him in the neck. Abrahamson got a bloody death scene as he bleeds out in an alley – but it’s a performance that will definitely spice up his highlight reel! Not to mention the rush that Abrahamson is probably enjoying right now, having two high-profile projects out simultaneously.

Jared Abrahamson has previously appeared in the indie comedy On the Count of Three (starring Jarrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott); episode arcs in the Hulu series Letterkenny and Ramy, and Apple TV+’s The Changeling. He is probably best known for starring in Netflix’s time-travel sci-f-drama-mystery series Travelers (2016-2018).

You can also catch him in Venom: The Last Dance (now in theaters) or in The Penguin (airing on HBO and streaming on Max).

The post The Penguin & Venom 3 Have a Weird Connection Fans Probably Missed appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin has had viewers questioning one character who didn’t seem to fit with the show’s lineup of gangsters, psychopaths, and criminals: Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz). A key flashback in Episode 3 revealed that Victor was once a good kid from a good home (complete with a humble and hard-working father) – but also hinted that there were seeds of some burning ambition for a “better” life already smoldering inside of the boy. Victor has shown how much actual fire there is behind that ambition as he’s helped Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) wriggle his way through an underworld power vacuum – at least up to a point. The Penguin Episode 6 forces Vic into a corner where he has to finally cross the point of no return in becoming a villain.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS!

When Oz’s wars with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) and Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown) went sideways (Episode 5), he had Vic relocate his mother Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell) to an apartment in the third-world slums of Crown Point, where both Oz and Vic grew up. Unfortunately, Vic’s move-in didn’t go unnoticed: Squid (Jared Abrahamson), the local shot-caller spotted Francis, and – together with rumors about the new drug Bliss hitting the streets – discerns that Vic is The Penguin’s sidekick in a major new operation. Squid wants in, and leans hard on Vic to introduce him to the boss. Vic goes to Oz for help, but Oz already has too many problems to listen to another one, and basically tasks VIctor with solving the issue himself. Vic tries to give Squid the out of taking a bribe to leave the issue alone; instead, Squid throws the money back in Vic’s face with the counter-offer of snitching about Oz’s drug operation and hideout to the police or the Falcone/Maroni mobs. Victor pretends to acquiesce and take Squid to see Oz, before turning and shooting his long-time bully point-blank in the neck.

Victor’s first murder doesn’t go as cleanly as he hoped: Squid dies painfully and bloodily, staring at him the whole time. The only thing more haunting than the murder is what happens when Vic returns and let’s Oz know what happened: Penguin gives Vic the “fatherly” advice that when it comes to murder, “It gets easier,” a promise that will only pull Vic further into the depths of soul-sucking criminality.

In fact, the Karmic payback for Vic’s dastardly deed comes quickly: by the end of the epiosde Sofia Falcone tracks down Oz’s hideout in Crown Point, and finds Vic and Francis happily dancing the night away, celebrating Oz’s ascension to the head of his own mob. Now viewers are wondering if Vic has a big death flag planted on him, as ‘punishment’ for choosing the dark path. Then again, other fan theories about The Penguin speculate that “Victor Aguilar” could turn out to be one of Batman’s most notorious villains.

The Penguin airs episodes Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

The post The Penguin Finally Turns a Major Character Into a True Villain in Episode 6 appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Much of The Penguin has shown the varying rises to power of Oz and Sofia Falcone, who are both rather amazing at seizing the moment and turning bad things to their favor. The last few episodes have focused a heavy share of the attention on Sofia especially (played by the amazing Cristin Milioti), and while episode 6 of The Penguin does so as well, we also see a different side of Sofia’s life early in the episode, courtesy of a romance with its own share of twists. Spoilers are incoming for The Penguin’s sixth episode Gold Summit, so if you haven’t watched the episode yet you’ve been warned.

A Twisted Romance

Early in the episode the attention shifts to Sofia’s home, and we see her in the midst of a romantic night with someone off camera. We soon learn though that the night is now over, as turns towards that person to reveal it’s her therapist Dr. Julian Rush (played by Theo Rossi). She turns around and tells him “you’re doing it again…you’re scrutinizing).”

She walks towards him and we then learn he’s actually tied up in a chair. He says “I’m admiring you”, and she responds “are you hurt?”. The camera moves closer as she unties him and you can see what she’s referring to, as he’s clearly bleeding a bit from what seem like scratches on his shoulder and chest. He then says “I deserved it.”

As she walks away he says “are you bored with me already?” and she says “I have work.” He gets up to leave and says “When you find Oz, feel free to take advantage of my expertise.” Sofia smirks and then says Dom will see him out. That’s when she heads to the kitchen and encounters Salvatore Maroni (played by Clancy Brown) to talk about that man Oz.

[RELATED: The Penguin Episode 6 Ending – Will SPOILER Die?]

The One Who Believed Her

Sofia has been betrayed by many to this point, especially when she was imprisoned in Arkham Asylum and left to rot by Carmine Falcone. With the power the Falcone family wielded, no one was on her side, but Julian was different, and he’s been by her side since he got out of Arkham.

In past episodes we’ve seen their relationship start to become something different, with hints that there was more there than just a doctor and patient relationship. Julian has dug into her past trauma and helped her face it, and now she has gone from someone who is desperately trying to get people to believe she’s innocent to someone who is seizing power and leaning into that aura of fear.

This ties into their relationship in the present as well, as Sofia is clearly in the power position regarding their dynamic, and Julian saying things like “are you bored with me already” only furthers that notion. We don’t get any more looks at their relationship after this throughout the episode, but it will be interesting to see where it goes from here and how Sofia and Julian react to Oz moving forward.

The Penguin Episode 6 is now streaming on Max.

What did you think of the episode? You can talk all things DC and TV with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The post The Penguin Introduces a Twisted Romance Into the Show appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 6 “Gold Summit” just ended on a cliffhanger that has fans sweating like crazy, wondering what kind of tragedy could be coming in Episode 7. So far, the major characters of The Penguin – Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown), and Francis Cobb (Dierdre O’Connell) -have all managed to dodge a bullet, shank, or worse in the war for Gotham City’s Underworld. Until now, at least…

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!

In Episode 6, Oz Cobb/Penguin finally got his big break to make a name for himself as a crime boss, after uniting Gotham’s rival gangs under a banner of blue-collar frustration. But while ‘Oz Mob’ was rising, Sofia Falcone doled out some unexpected mercy to Penguin’s main lady Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo) that came back to her in the form of a tip from Eve about where Oz may be hiding out in his childhood slum of Crown Point.

Meanwhile, over in Crown Point, Francis is coming apart over having to return to her old slum living ways, confusing past and present with greater frequency. To prove his worth to his “ma,” Oz seeks to get the power in the ‘Point turned back on (winter is coming!), by tracking down the crooked city official on Carmine Falcone’s payroll. Oz leans on the councilman to be Penguin’s patsy, and the guy bends to the blackmail, getting power diverted back to Crown Point. As the lights and heat come back on, Victor and Francs dance to celebrate Oz’s big successes – which is exactly when Sofia arrives at the apartment, gun in hand, realizing that Oz has kept the secret of his mother being alive, playing her once again.

Will Sofia Falcone Kill Francis Cobb or Victor?

To Cristin Milioti’s credit, she’s made Sofia Falcone such a deeply layered and complex character that it’s hard to read what she’ll do next. She owes Oz a big emotional blow to the heart for killing her brother – but as she explains to Sal Maroni earlier in the episode while tossing Oz’s apartment for clues, Penguin’s great advantage is that there’s seemingly nothing and no one he cares about. It won’t take Sofia long to discern just how deeply attached Oz is to Francis, and know what her loss could do to him; however, Sofia’s meeting Eve seems to highlight the distinction that she is hesitant to hurt women and further fuel the lie that she’s “The Hangman.” That said, Sofia’s harshest weapons are often her wit and her words; she didn’t just give Eve a pass in their conversational joust: she made Eve feel the shame of getting played by Oz, the same man that helped Carmine Falcone kill dozens of women – including friends of Eve’s. It was a way of undoing the spell of deception and manipulation that Penguin excels at – maybe that will be the same goal with Francis: not killing her so much as killing her love for her son.

Then there’s poor Victor, who just gave us all the necessary runway for his untimely death, after making the final ‘fall from grace’ of killing neighborhood thug Calvin (Ben Cook) in cold blood. By TV show standards, Victor is now fair game for moral punishment, since he’s decided to follow the example of his surrogate dad (Oz) instead of his real dad. The only things that may save Victor are Sofia’s belief that he’s still some kind of good-hearted innocent Oz is using – and her skepticism that Penguin doesn’t truly value anyone.

Fans must wait until next Sunday when The Penguin Episode 7 airs on HBO and streams on Max.

The post The Penguin Episode 6 Ending – Will SPOILER Die? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Through six episode of The Penguin, Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) has been desperately trying to fill the power void in Gotham City. The death of Carmine Falcone — and the destruction of the bridges into the city — left a unique opportunity for the criminals of Gotham to step up and become the new kingpin. Oz has obsessively chased that goal, throwing under the bus anyone and everyone possible to achieve the power he seeks. At the end of this week’s new episode of The Penguin, it looks as though the titular villain has finally made it happen. At the very least, he’s closer than he’s ever been.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the latest episode of The Penguin! Continue reading at your own risk…

The power struggle in Gotham City has been something of a roller coaster over the course of The Penguin, and Oz has been at the center of all the drama. He worked with both the Falcones and the Maronis to try and climb his way up the ladder, only to toss them both aside at the most opportune moments. Little did he know, he was creating a new monster, as Sofia Falcone rallied her father’s former members to create a new family: The Gigantes. Using that momentum, she made a deal with Salvatore Maroni to bring their families together, united with the sole purpose of taking Oz down.

This has left Oz in yet another precarious situation, especially after the gangs working with him started seeing their members killed by the Gigantes trying to send a message. All of this led to one of the final scenes of The Penguin‘s sixth episode, as Oz called a meeting with a majority of the gangs in Gotham.

[RELATED: Every Movie and TV Show Coming to Max in November 2024]

While they came to the meeting wanting vengeance, the leaders of the gangs end up going something surprising. They actually listen to what Oz has to say. And they all agree to continue working with him, making a massive Gotham City crime syndicate that Sofia and Salvatore will have a hard time standing up against.

The key for Oz in this big meeting is that he continued to push the same narrative he always has. The timing, however, is finally right, and people are in a position to hear him out. He talks about his history and how he made his way through the ranks, starting as a kid who had nothing and becoming a driver for Falcone before being allowed to take on any other responsibility. Unlike the traditional crime lords, who have always had wealth at their side, Oz understands the plight everyone else in Gotham City. He’s been through the hardest experiences the city can throw at someone, and he’s found a way to continue on. Now, those experiences have made him the most powerful man in Gotham.

The most interesting aspect of this entire situation is how Sofia and Salvatore might respond. They obviously aren’t going to take it lying down, so there will be something coming Oswald’s way in the near future.

The post The Penguin Episode 6 Introduces a Whole New Mob Syndicate to Gotham City appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 5 “Homecoming” has truly taken things up a notch, by featuring some of the most gruesome death scenes we’ve seen in this show – or any comic book TV show, for that matter. The latest chapter of The Penguin picked up from the big twist of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) killing off her mob family and seizing control as the new don. Sofia’s power grab is just one element of Oz Cobb/Penguin’s (Colin Farrell) master plan that goes wrong: his triple-cross play against the Maronis also blows up in his face. By the time the dust settles, some bodies get dropped, in ways viewers are never going to forget!

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Getting Rid of the Competition

A big turn in Penguin Episode 5’s story happens when Oz kidnaps Taj Maroni (Aria Shahghasemi), the spoiled influencer son of mob boss Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown). Oz uses Taj as a hostage to negotiate for the return of the psychotropic mushrooms that create the hit new party drug Bliss – product that Sal’s wife Nadia (Shohreh Aghdashloo) stole from him.

The Maronis concede to an exchange of the mushrooms for their son but plan their own double-cross, ambushing Oz and his man with some additional gunmen hidden in the rafters. However, Oz has his own betrayal planned: giving Taj a kerosine shower before the exchange and then lighting the trail of liquid behind him on fire.

Nadia can’t stop the trail of fire from catching up with her son but refuses to let him go, leaving mother and son to burn alive, screaming. The most chilling part about the scene is how director Helen Shaver keeps the camera on Oz’s face the entire time, as we see a gleeful smile spread over his face, watching the horrific event. If we didn’t know who “The Penguin” was before… we do now.

New Don, New Day

Sofia spends most of the episode trying to both get out from under the murders she committed and secure her new place as the queenpin of her own crime family. Early on in the episode, it’s revealed that Sofia is keeping Falcone underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) prisoner, to locate and secure the nest egg of money she knows her father Carmine Falcone amassed. Instead, Johnny appeals to Sofia on the strength of their family bond, and offers to help her grab the respect of the underworld, so they can lead the Falcone mob into a new era.

Johnny indeed gets the various Gotham mobs and syndicates to come to the table with Sofia. However, he’s blindsided by her sudden announcement that she’s ending the Falcone line and starting a new mob, under her mother’s maiden name, “Gigante.” Johnny dismisses Sofia in the middle of her speech, trying to wrestle control of the meeting – only to catch a bullet to the skull. Sofia dumps a bag of money into the blood pool as the entry fee to her new family. The table of gangsters all snatch up the literal blood money, while Vitis lies slumped on the table with a bullet hole in his head.

The Penguin is now, officially, the most violent and disturbing vision of Gotham City we’ve seen onscreen. It’s actually getting hard to see how fans of The Batman can go back to the almost-certain PG-13 rating of The Batman: Part II when Penguin is giving us R-rated greatness – that also haunts our dreams.

The Penguin is now airing on HBO and streaming on Max.

The post The Penguin Episode 5 Horrifies With The Batman Universe’s Most Gruesome Death Scenes Yet appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s wild looking at the fall 2024 television season and seeing both Marvel and DC shows getting acclaim as they enter their respective back halves. HBO’s The Penguin is getting phrases like “best of the year,” and “Emmy contender” thrown around; meanwhile, Agatha All Along is the dark horse breakout that many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are pleasantly surprised to be enjoying so much. As the discourse about both series flows, there is one thing that is true about both of them, collectively: they are performance-driven shows, built on two very talented lead actors.

And with their respective levels of success and/or acclaim, Agatha All Along and The Penguin are proving that some new-age theories about entertainment are dead wrong, and the old ways are still true: franchises are built primarily on star power, not necessarily just the power of IP.

Let’s just step back and look at this: The Penguin and Agatha All Along were initially met with overwhelming skepticism. The question of why either show needs to exist was asked often and repeatedly, with the only real answer being the strength of the performances of Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb/Penguin in The Batman, and Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness in WandaVision. That didn’t seem like enough to justify spinoff series for two minor characters – but both Penguin and Agatha have been wise to take those central performances as foundations, and build on them with entire ensembles of acting talent.

Penguin is giving Sofia Falcone actress Cristin Milioti the breakout she’s long deserved, and all but locking her for the Emmys next year; it’s also earning praise for Rhenzy Feliz, a young actor who has been trying to break through in projects like Marvel’s Runaways. Agatha All Along is both reminding fans that Aubrey Plaza is a top-tier talent while breaking in new Marvel franchise talent like actor Joe Locke – who is just now breaking out with the reveal that he’s Scarlet Witch’s son Billy Maximoff, the magical Young Avenger known as Wiccan. Those standout supporting actors are also bolstered by many talented veteran actors, with a list that includes the likes of Clancy Brown, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mark Strong, and Michael Kelly for Penguin, and Debra Jo Rupp, Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata and Ali Ahn for Agatha All Along.

The buzz on both shows makes it undeniable that the individual performances and character interactions are taking precedence over any in-universe ties, crossovers, or cameos. Now granted: by the time Penguin and Agatha both come to an end, one or both shows may get the biggest signal boost from some kind of late-game crossover or game-changing reveal for the franchise. Yet it feels like Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc and Agtha All Along showrunner Jac Schaeffer (no dots to connect there…) are much more interested in focusing on complex and layered characters, created by actors who have the talent to deliver on them.

Marvel Studios and DC Studios are hopefully taking note that the old star-driven franchise model isn’t yet as dead as many declared it to be. Loyalty to an actor and their performance as a character will get audiences to engage with even the most unlikely IP concepts. Farrell and Hahn’s now-proven ability to go from supporting roles to carrying shows also proves that no casting should be taken frivolously, as any breakout performance is potentially a new spinoff project of some kind. For the actors, it should be well-earned validation (and future leverage) that the craft is still a valuable commodity.

The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max. Agatha All Along streams on Disney+.

The post The Penguin & All Along Prove Superhero Franchises Are Driven By Actors, Not IP appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 5 features a cameo appearance from a pivotal character we met in The Batman (2022), and a lot of fans may have missed it! Episode 5 of The Penguin “Homecoming” had to deal with the game-changing twist of Episode 4 (SPOILERS!) that saw Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) murder nearly all of her crime family in a bid to seize power. Well, The Penguin treats the death of the Falcone family with the gravitas it deserves – meaning the Gotham City Police Department shows up in force to deal with it.

The Penguin Episode 5 Brings Back The Batman’s Chief Bock

Matt Reeves’ movie made it clear that Batman (Robert Pattinson) has a pretty uneasy relationship with the GCPD. While Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) treated Batman as an ally and fellow detective, his superior Chief Mackenzie Bock (Con O’Neill) was vehemently opposed to the masked vigilante being involved with a police investigation.

Bock only got the spotlight for a couple of scenes in The Batman; he’s primarily featured in the sequence after The Riddler blows up D.A. Gil Colson during Mayor Don Mitchell Jr.’s funeral. Batman is knocked unconscious by the explosion and taken to police headquarters; he wakes up to Bock, Gordon, and a gang of cops surrounding him, and immediately gets into it with Bock, who accuses Batman of having Colson’s blood on his hands. Bock and Gordon get into it a bit when Gordon steps up to defend Batman, but the chief ultimately lets Gordon talk to Batman one-on-one – which sets up Bruce to make a wild escape off the roof with this flight suit. By the end of The Riddler’s attack, Chief Mackenzie is one of the noble city officials left holding together a city that’s literally drowning.

The Penguin Episode 5 conveys a lot of history (and some great onscreen chemistry) with Chief Bock’s cameo. The policeman comes to the Falcone estate to personally supervise the crime scene and investigation – interest that Sofia Falcone weaponized against him. Bock goes fishing for a lead, questioning the “luck” that Sofia wasn’t in the house when the “accident” happened, because she was having a sleepover with her niece Gia in the greenhouse. Sofia easily dodges that hook and throws out her line of inquiry about what Bock is doing there – prying into his motivation to come and survey the demise of her family and the fall of their criminal organization. Sofia gets even darker, suggesting that Bock is secretly so pleased with the deaths that he and his officers will share photos of the crime scene and celebrate at their cop bar – before selling the gruesome images to the press. Bock doesn’t bite the bait either, leaving Sofia with sarcastic condolences before departing.

The Penguin continues to do a precise job of peppering in tie-in elements and unexpected character cameos that remind us the show is set in The Batman Universe and is reacting to events and mythology established in the first film. It manages to achieve that immersive effect without shoehorning heavy-handed name-drops or callback exposition, and (so far) the show has managed to feel relevant and interesting without having an appearance from Batman himself. If the back half of the season keeps that trend intact, Penguin will stand as a shining example of how to do these franchise universe spinoffs right in a TV format.

The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

The post The Penguin Episode 5 Brings Back A Pivotal Character From The Batman appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin mid-season trailer has been released by HBO and Max streaming, teasing the epic gang war between Oswald “Oz” Cobb (Colin Farrell) and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). As this mid-season trailer arrives, we’ve seen four episodes of The Penguin deliver some of the most highly-acclaimed television that DC and Warner Bros. have produced for the franchise, with Episode 4 sparking major Emmys buzz for the series. Interest in The Penguin is higher than ever – and this kind of trailer will probably ensure the current audience sticks with the show, and get new viewers to believe the hype!

The Penguin mid-season trailer shows the streets of Gotham exploding into a gang war for the new drug trade. (SPOILERS) After Episode 4 ended with Sofia Falcone murdering most of her own crime family, it looks like she will be building a new on its bones, with her seated at the head of the table as the new don. Meanwhile, The Maronis are still on the rampage, looking to finally end the Falcones. At the same time, they’re weak – and squeezed in the middle is Penguin, who is seen looking unusually vulnerable and down, with the women in his life – his mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) and main girl Eve (Carmen Ejogo) – pulling away from him as the underworld power struggle takes this ugly new turn.

As always, however, Oz seems to use his twisted, scrappy resourcefulness to wriggle and waddle through to new opportunities. Then again, the footage makes it seem like Sofia is truly committed to ending Penguin and owning the city herself – so much so that we get hints of it coming down to some violent shootouts between the two.

As stated, The Penguin has beat all odds to become the most acclaimed show – not just a comic book show – of the fall 2024 season. Farrell and Milioti’s portrayal of Oz and Sofia are certainly highlights, but the entire cast and crew of the show are cooking with real gas. This series is making big strides for widening The Batman Universe and making fans go back and look at Matt Reeves’ 2022 film in a whole new light. It’s also making viewers and critics alike rethink some of the underlying skepticism that major superhero movie franchises can’t produce prestige-level content.

In fact, HBO is betting heavily that after the Emmy-winning success of HBO’s Watchmen (a DC comic book series) and now Penguin, the fusion of prestige programming and major IP brands will be a potent formula for both ratings and streaming success. So far, it seems to be working: The Penguin is keeping HBO Sunday night appointment TV alive just as much as Game of Thrones, or The Sopranos (a show Penguin is often compared to); it’s also getting viewers to head back into Max streaming to watch The Batman again. HBO is already restructuring its slate with this new strategy in mind: James Gunn’s and John Cena’s Peacemaker Season 2 is set to air on HBO next year, while the Green Lantern TV series Lanterns is currently in production and set for the same kind of HBO release.

The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

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Like its titular character, DC and HBO’s The Penguin has played on viewers’ initial underestimation of a spinoff TV series centered around The Penguin character. The Batman director Matt Reeves, showrunner Lauren LeFranc, and a talented team of writers, directors, and actors have arguably delivered DC’s first prestige-level live-action TV show – one that’s directly connected to a major movie franchise (The Batman). At the time of writing this, The Penguin has aired four of its eight episodes, and even now, at the halfway point, there’s already talk of the show and its cast being locked for 2025 Emmy Awards.

However, now that Emmys are looking more and more like a realistic possibility for The Penguin, those awards hopes could have a direct influence on another big question looming over the series: will it continue?

The Penguin star Colin Farrell has been hesitant to commit to another whole season playing Oswald “Oz” Cobb/Penguin; the actor is already slated to return for Reeves’ sequel film, The Batman: Part II, but beyond that his future in the franchise is unclear. But as far as HBO, Warner Bros., and DC Studios are concerned, announcing a second season of The Penguin may be a key strategy.

Earlier this year, another breakout hit TV series – Disney and FX’s Shōgun – found itself in almost the same place as The Penguin: not that much hype initially, before exploding into a critical darling and trending consistently, as fans drummed up support for awards acclaim to follow for the actors, crew, and show itself. Like Penguin, Shōgun was first presented as a “limited series”; however, once the show became a big hit, and Emmys entered the discussion, the studios had a pivotal decision to make.

Being a limited series left Shōgun facing the actual limitation of only qualifying in the smaller range of Emmys categories set aside for limited series; Disney and FX were hoping for the series to be a much larger Emmys darling, which could only happen if it was an ongoing series. Despite Shōgun being based on a single novel by author James Clavell, FX announced (before the Emmys) that Shōgun would be returning for Seasons 2 and 3, with series star and executive producer Hiroyuki Sanada already signed on to return as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. That change in show format worked as masterfully as one of Toranaga political schemes: Shōgun walked away as a big winner at the 2024 Emmy Awards, with 18 nominations, resulting in a win of four Emmys at the Primetime Awards (including the biggest categories of “Oustanding Drama Series,” Outstanding Lead Actor in A Drama Series” (Sanada), “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series” (Anna Sawai), and “Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series”), as well as fourteen additional award wins at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (in major production and technical categories).

It seems that the Shōgun just blazed the kind of path that The Penguin should follow. It’s looking like DC Studios and HBO (as well as HBO’s Max streaming platform) finally have their first piece of prestige-level comic book TV content since HBO’s Watchmen. Watchmen stuck to its guns as being a limited series – and cleaned up in both the major categories for limited series and the creative ones, as the 2020 Emmys. HBO knows better than anyone what the gap is between the perception of limited series wins and major category wins; there’s also the fact that Farrell’s Penguin is already part of an ongoing story with The Batman: Part II on the way.

Keeping The Penguin set as a single-season limited series seems like the kind of wasted opportunity for greater glory that Penguin himself would be furious about. There’s still skepticism about whether we’ll see Shōgun push forward into additional seasons, or if the cast and crew fade away into new projects towing their Emmy wins, while those promised new seasons fade into development limbo. DC and Warner Bros. are in an even better position to “tease” another season of Penguin early next year, run an Emmys campaign in all the major categories, and later revise those plans under the excuse of The Batman 2 or larger The Batman Universe changing course. It’s the kind of hustle Oz Cobb would run, and a power move fans would (enthusiastically) support.

The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

The post Why The Penguin Needs Season 2 to Win Big at the Emmys appeared first on ComicBook.com.

We’re almost halfway through the first season of The Penguin, HBO’s buzzy new series inspired by the lore of the DC Universe. The live-action series continues the story of Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), who made his debut as a standout villain during 2022’s The Batman. The series’ role as a bridge between The Batman and 2026’s The Batman Part II has allowed for some fascinating franchise connections, ranging from massive plot points to smaller ties. The latest episode of the season was no exception, delivering plenty of surprises — including the live-action introduction of a character best known for playing a prominent role in the beloved Batman: The Animated Series. Spoilers for Episode 4 of The Penguin, “Cent’anni”, lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

The majority of “Cent’anni” consists of a flashback sequence to the origin story of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), explaining the tragic and unexpected circumstances that led to her being institutionalized in Arkham Asylum. More specifically, Sofia was framed for the string of murders committed by a serial killer known as “The Hangman”, who strangled a seemingly-random array of single women across Gotham City. Prior to Sofia being framed and incarcerated, she was actually approached by a Gotham Gazette journalist with evidence that the murders were being carried out by her father, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong). The journalist in question was named Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf) — who very quickly becomes the next victim of “The Hangman.” While Summer’s role in the episode is relatively brief, it does continue a unique history for the DC character.

Who Is DC’s Summer Gleeson?

Created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, Summer Gleeson first made her debut in the 1992 Batman: The Animated Series episode “Heart of Ice.” Voiced by Mari Devon, Summer is initially introduced as a high-profile journalist who is set to give a humanitarian award to businessman Ferris Boyle. After a fight between Batman and Mister Freeze interrupted the event, Batman presented Summer with evidence of Boyle’s corruption. Summer then played a significant role in a number of Batman: The Animated Series episodes, regularly being targeted and kidnapped by members of Batman’s rogues gallery.

Summer subsequently carried over into the pages of DC’s comics, making her debut in 2002’s Batman: The Animated Series tie-in series Batman: Gotham Knights #33. While she has yet to make her debut in the main DC continuity, she most recently had minor roles in the Black Label series Harleen, and in Batman ’89, which spins off the lore of Tim Burton’s Batman moves.

What Is The Penguin About?

The Penguin is the next chapter in The Batman saga from Matt Reeves.The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere on both HBO and Max every Sunday night.

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 4, “Cent’anni.” “We work for him,” corrupt Gotham City cop William Kenzie (Peter McDonald) says in 2022’s The Batman movie. “Everybody does.” The mustachioed detective is referring to crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) — the true Hangman killer who strangled Iceberg Lounge waitress Annika Kosolov (Hana Hrzic) and had Kenzie cover up the missing girl’s death while moonlighting as a bouncer for Penguin’s (Colin Farrell) 44 Below. When he’s investigated by Batman (Robert Pattinson) and a vengeful Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), the dirty narcotics detective lets the cat out of the bag about Falcone ratting out the Maroni Drops operation.

Kenzie tells Batman and Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) about the corruption within the Thomas Wayne-founded Renewal Fund, the charitable fund that turned into a laundering operation after the deaths of the Waynes. Falcone orchestrated a play to take down his rival, Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown), who is incarcerated in Blackgate Penitentiary by the time of The Penguin.

Sunday’s “Cent’anni” episode takes place 10 years earlier, when Oz tips off Carmine (a recast Mark Strong) about his daughter Sofia’s (Cristin Milioti) clandestine meeting with Gotham Gazette reporter Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf). Carmine tells Sofia that he “spoke to Kenzie,” who informed him that Gleeson is working with the police on an open investigation into the murder of “some hooker at the club.”

Peter McDonald as Kenzie in The Penguin (left) and The Batman (right).

Later, when Oz drives Sofia home, she’s arrested by Kenzie and charged with the murders of Summer Gleeson, Yolanda Jones, Taylor Montgomery, and Nancy Hoffman — victims of her father. Carmine implicates Sofia as the serial killer behind the “Hangman killings” and has her institutionalized at Arkham State Hospital, where chief psychiatrist Dr. Ventris (T. Ryder Smith) — a nod to the little-known Batman villain Floyd Ventris, a.k.a. the reflection-obsessed Mirror Man — claims she’s unfit to stand trial.

Carmine has the Family — including Sofia’s uncle, Luca Falcone (Scott Cohen), her cousin Carla (Aleksa Palladino), and Carla’s brother Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) — sign affidavits falsely claiming that she has a history of mental illness, so Sofia spends the next decade locked away in Arkham alongside lunatics like Magpie (Marié Botha).

In the present, following Falcone’s death at the hands of the Riddler (Paul Dano) in The Batman, Oz makes a power grab against the acting heads of the Maroni and Falcone crime Families: Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Sofia Falcone, who takes her father’s place as the head of the Falcone Family.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.

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We’re officially halfway through the first season of The Penguin, HBO’s no-holds-barred spinoff to 2022’s The Batman. In addition to continuing the story of its titular character, Oz Cobb / The Penguin (Colin Farrell), The Penguin has folded in a wide array of DC characters as allies, adversaries, or something in between. One of the biggest fan favorites thus far has been Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), whose return to society after years of being kept in Arkham Asylum has provided an interesting foil to Oz. In the series’ most recent episode, The Penguin finally shed light on what forced Sofia to Arkham Asylum, and the answer was both unexpected and truly heartbreaking. Spoilers for Episode 4 of The Penguin, “Cent’anni”, lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

The majority of “Cent’anni” is set within a flashback prior to the events of the series, as well as The Batman. In this time period, we are able to see the early days of Oz and Sofia’s friendship, as she galavants around Gotham as a spoiled heiress, and he accompanies her as her driver. Rumors of a serial killer known as “The Hangman”, who strangles a seemingly-random array of lonely women to death, begin to surface around Gotham City. A journalist named Summer Gleeson brings one theory directly to Sofia — that her father, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), is secretly operating as The Hangman. Carmine confronts Sofia about this investigation directly, but before anything else can happen, he arranges to have her arrested and framed for The Hangman’s murders… including his newest victim, Summer.

Despite Sofia’s insistence that she did not commit any of the murders, Gotham’s corrupt legal system continues to frame her, citing scattered testimony about violent tendencies she might have had as a child. She tries to maintain her innocence even as she is thrown into the brutality of Arkham Asylum, where she is mandated to spend at least six months prior to her trial. The conditions at the asylum, as well as mental and physical abuse at the hands of its corrupt doctors, eventually pushes Sofia towards a violent tendency anyway. She is repeatedly given electroshock therapy and, when her trial is thrown out by a judge, the prospect of staying in Arkham permanently leads her to snap. She brutally kills her next door cellmate, Magpie, and fully embraces the label that Gotham has publicly given her.

How Does The Penguin‘s Sofia Falcone Origin Story Differ From the Comics?

This is a major subversion from Sofia’s standing in the pages of DC’s comics, particularly in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s 1999 limited series Batman: Dark Victory. In it, Sofia is revealed to legitimately be The Hangman, who deliberately kills members of the Gotham City Police Department with connections to Harvey Dent / Two-Face. Sofia was able to keep up this ruse by faking paralysis in a wheelchair and a neck brace, but is eventually found out and shot to death by Two-Face anyway.

Despite these differences, The Penguin‘s take on Sofia’s backstory is unbelievably effective and poignant. Being framed by Carmine for the murders that he really committed adds a tragic layer, both to her arc with the Falcone family (as evident by the ending of “Cent’anni”), and in the overall corruption that her father had in the events of The Batman. The fact that she was mistreated enough to go down a violent path anyway is doubly heartbreaking — and sets her up as a major force to be reckoned with in the remaining episodes of The Penguin.

What Is The Penguin About?

The Penguin is the next chapter in The Batman saga from Matt Reeves.The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere on both HBO and Max every Sunday night.

The post The Penguin Reveals the Dark Backstory of Why Sofia Falcone Went to Arkham Asylum appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 4 “Cent’Anni” just hit viewers with a game-changing twist, in one of The Batman spinoff show’s darkest moments yet. All season long The Penguin has been building the tension between members of the Falcone family and/or crime organization, as they compete to claim leadership after Carmine Falcone’s death. While Sofia Falcone’s (Cristin Milioti) focus has been on Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell), her own family finally proved to be just as big of a threat to her future – and something had to be done about it.

(MAJOR SPOILERS)

The Penguin Episode 4 spends a lot of time revealing the backstory of Sofia’s time in Arkham Asylum. It’s revealed that her father, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong taking over the role from The Batman actor John Turturro), was the Hangman Killer who strangled dozens of women over the years (including Selina Kyle’s mom). When Gotham reporter Summer Gleeson began approaching Sofia about Carmine’s possible crimes as The Hangman, it triggered memories of Sofia’s mother’s death, and the scratches on Carmine’s face the night she was found hanging in their home. Oz snitches to Carmine about Sofia’s meetings with Gleeson; to keep himself in the clear, Carmine kills the reporter and frames Sofia as The Hangman – with her own family writing damning statements as character witnesses against her.

Things come full circle for Sofia when her uncle Luca (Scott Cohen) and underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) lay down the ultimatum that Sofia leave town, after her partnership with Oz and goes sideways, igniting a whole new round of conflict with the Maroni’s. Sofia plays coy, attending a family dinner in seeming support of her uncle, before she gives a speech about how her family (except for her brother Alberto) betrayed her – the only truly innocent one in the group. Sofia concedes that she doesn’t belong in the family and pledges that she’s starting a new life, ending the meal in a solemn toast.

Well, Sofia Falcone’s ideas of catharsis and rebirth have pretty dark and twisted meanings. That night, as her family sleeps, Sofia lures her niece Gia out for a sleepover in the greenhouse with the promise of the chocolate cake she was denied earlier. When Gia is sleeping, Sofia reroutes natural gas line for the mansion into the air vents, poisoning the air in the entire house, and killing off Luca, his wife Tina (Tess Soltau), cousin Carla (Aleksa Palladino), and a dozen Falcone soldiers. The only survivor is Johnny Viti – and only because Sofia left the window to his bedroom cracked open, by design. Viti wakes to his new nightmare to find Sofia holding him at gunpoint, demanding a parle.

Sofia Falcone has officially made her power move as the Queenpin of Gotham – and Penguin just got a whole lot more to worry about, as the powers of the underworld could quickly consolidate against him.

The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday Nights on HBO.

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The Penguin Episode 4 “Cent’Anni” finally revealed the dark backstory of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) and the events that led to her being committed to Arkham Asylum for ten years. While getting that pivotal piece of backstory, we also got a major connective thread to the events of The Batman, and how much darkness has surrounded the Falcone family all these years.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!

The backstory of Sofia’s fall from grace centered around the pivotal moment when a Gotham City reporter named Summer Gleeson approached her with a damning theory: that Carmine Falcone is a serial murderer who has strangled dozens of women for decades – including Sofia’s mother. Even though she rejects Gleeson’s attempt to recruit her as a source, a seed of doubt starts to sprout in Sofia’s mind – something that her driver, Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) notices, and uses to his advantage.

When Oz told Carmine (Mark Strong) about Sofia’s wavering thoughts, it forced a confrontation between Sofia and her father – one where Carmine’s mask finally dropped for a second, and it was clear that he was, indeed, The Hangman. As retaliation for being seen, Carmine lashed out, murdering Summer Gleeson and framing Sofia for her murder and all the Hangman killings. Sofia was sent to Arkham and kept there, while Carmine was free to go on running the underworld and killing women.

The Penguin’s Hangman Killer Reveal Is a Big Deal For The Batman’s Story

One of the most pivotal subplots of Matt Reeves’ The Batman is the story of Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) and her undercover operation within Carmine Falcone’s organization. Selina worked at the Iceberg Lounge in an attempt to gather intel on her father’s operations so that she could rob him – while also planning to kill him for the murders of her mother, Maria Kyle, and friend/roommate Annika Kosolov. Batman ultimately stops Sellina before she crosses the line of murdering Carmine – only for The Riddler to finally assassinate the mob boss.

The Penguin Episode 4 ties a connective thread to The Batman by revealing the true depravity of Carmine Falcone when it comes to women. He strangled the mothers of two of his daughters (that we know of), and sacrificed his favorite child and would-be successor (Sofia) as the patsy for those crimes. Carmine’s line of killings left both Sofia Falcone and Selina Kyle broken in deep ways that turned them into the brutal and cold women they became. It also drives home the horror that “The Hangman’s” final victim, Annika, was another person close to Selina.

Will The Daughters of Carmine Falcone Unite?

Selina leaves Gotham at the end of The Batman, but it seems inevitable that she will be one of few who truly understands that Sofia is not the real Hangman Killer. Together, Sofia and Catwoman would be a mix of old-school organized crime and new costumed villains that both Batman and Penguin have to worry about, by the time The Batman 2 arrives.

The Penguin airs Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.

The post The Penguin Makes A Dark Connection to The Batman With “The Hangman” Killer Reveal appeared first on ComicBook.com.

HBO’s hit DC series The Penguin is all about the villains lurking in Gotham City’s underbelly. Penguin (Colin Farrell) and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) have lead the story of warring crime families and a city largely closed off from the rest of the world. While those two are the biggest figures in the show’s plot, they’re far from the only Batman villains to appear on The Penguin. Sunday night’s fourth episode brought another, very surprising villain to life. WARNING: This article contains spoilers from the latest episode of The Penguin! Continue reading at your own risk…

The villain in question is Magpie, who plays a key role in Sofia Falcone’s tragic backstory. The majority of The Penguin‘s fourth episode is told in flashbacks, revealing that Sofia was sent to Arkham Asylum by her father when she posed a threat to his operations. Everything about her “psychotic break” and her murders as the Hangman was fabricated as part of the story to silence and discredit her. It’s during her time in Arkham that fans are introduced to The Penguin‘s version of Magpie, who is played by Marié Botha.

In this version of the Gotham City story, Magpie is a fellow inmate of Sofia’s while she’s locked away at Arkham. Unfortunately for Magpie, she crosses paths with Sofia at a really terrible time. The lies from her family and the experiments being done at Arkham — all while knowing she is completely innocent — do start to take their toll on Sofia after a while.

In the middle of the Arkham cafeteria, Sofia brutally murders Magpie, cutting her time on The Penguin incredibly short. The time she’s on-screen, however, should be a bright spot to fans of the character. From the look to her quirks, Botha and the team on The Penguin created a very faithful live-action version of Magpie.

Of course, this take on Magpie is far from the first time the character has appeared in live-action. This is actually Magpie’s third different live-action adaptation in the last decade, all of which have come on television. Rachel Matthews played Magpie in three episodes of The CW’s Batwoman series, which came on the heels of Sarah Schenkkan portraying the character in one episode of the final season of Gotham.

The character was created by John Byrne in 1986, first appearing in The Man of Steel #3. Unfortunately, due to the events of this week’s episode of The Penguin, we likely won’t be seeing any more from Magpie moving forward.

The main goal of Magpie in The Penguin was to further the story of Sofia Falcone. Ahead of the season, showrunner Lauren LeFranc talked about how the series planned to utilize Sofia’s tragic backstory.

“I thought about Rosemary Kennedy, the lost Kennedy daughter, who they put away in an asylum,” LeFranc explained. “It’s unclear how mentally ill she was or if she just did things that they felt were inappropriate and made the Kennedys look bad. Eventually, she got a lobotomy. It’s a very tragic story, but I thought about that about Carmine and Sofia. What if she came from Arkham State Hospital? Did she deserve to go to Arkham?”

The post The Penguin Episode 4 Introduces a Surprising DC Villain appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In the first episode of HBO’s The Penguin, you may have noticed something strange about the look of Carmine Falcone when a photo of him was shown on a news broadcast. The organized crime boss, who was killed in The Batman, was only briefly featured on-screen in The Penguin‘s premiere, but it was enough time for fans to see that it wasn’t John Turturro’s face on the news. The actor who played Carmine in The Batman was replaced and Sunday night’s new episode of the show finally gave the new-look Carmine a significant amount of time in the spotlight.

Even though Carmine Falcone died weeks prior to the events of The Penguin, his legacy looms large over the series, as much of it has to do with his remaining crime family. The fourth episode, which aired Sunday night, spent a ton of time telling the backstory of Sofia Falcone, so Carmine’s participation was required.

With Turturro not returning to play Carmine, the role went to fan-favorite actor Mark Strong. If your a comic fan, you probably remember him from his role as Merlin in the Kingsman movies, his turn as Dr. Sivana in Shazam!, or his portrayal of Sinestro in Green Lantern.

Strong took over the role of Carmine Falcone from John Turturro, who had some scheduling conflicts that kept him from working on The Penguin.

“Well, practically, John was just unavailable to us,” The Penguin show runner Lauren LeFrance told IGN. “He had scheduling conflicts, and we couldn’t make it work, but honestly I’m so thrilled that we brought Mark Strong on. I think he’s really good. Even though, maybe in the beginning when you first meet him, you might think, ‘Oh, obviously I’m so used to John Turturro,’ but I feel like the gravitas brings, it’s different. It’s very specific, and I hope, by the end of that episode, you’re just thinking, ‘That’s Carmine Falcone,’ and you’re engaged in what Mark brings to it.”

The two actors don’t exactly look alike, but it doesn’t matter too much for a supporting character who’s already dead within the continuity of Matt Reeves’ Batman universe. What’s important is that Strong is able to bring the chilling gravitas required to make Carmine Falcone feel like one of the most feared individuals in Gotham City, and boy does he have more than enough of that to go around.

In all honesty — no disrespect to John Turturro at all — Strong might actually be an even better fit for the character. He’s got a menacing side he can turn on that few others can match.

There might not be any more opportunities for Carmine Falcone to pop up in any future projects set within this version of Gotham City, but it would be hard to not make Strong the first call if the character is ever needed again.

The post The Penguin Recasts A Major Character From The Batman – Who Plays The New Carmine Falcone? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The ComicBook Nation crew reviews the new cult-horror flick Terrifier 3, and discuss the pivotal new Marvel Cinematic Universe character revealed in Agatha All Along’s new episode! 

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PLUS: DC’s Absolute Batman launches its debut issue; the DC Universe has cast John Stewart/Green Lantern; James Wan’s mysterious new show Teacup has dropped and the Batman (1989) Universe will continue!

Terrifier 3 Review – Is it Really That Grotesque?

ComicBook Nation’s Evan Valentine went out and saw Terrifier 3 and had this to say about it:

Terrifier 3 is now in theaters and Art The Clown has given horror junkies his bloodiest, goriest, and downright most jaw-dropping misadventure yet. While the third entry of the series might not be as long in runtime as Part 2, it somehow crammed in far more grotesque moments as the killer clown attempts to share his version of the holiday season.

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The Penguin premiered its third episode this weekend, furthering the mythos of The Batman’s Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) in some clever and unexpected ways. In the process, the series’ latest episode had an unexpected tie to the previous DC Extended Universe canon. Spoilers for Episode 3 of The Penguin lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

Episode 3 of The Penguin introduces the leader of the Tong crime family (played by François Chau), who Oz Cobb and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) are both trying to impress with their new street drug, Bliss. Chau’s supporting role in this episode of The Penguin has a weird symmetry to the previous DCEU, as he also portrayed a crime boss in the 2020 movie Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). In that film, Chau portrayed Mr. Keo, a leader of Gotham’s Chinese triad who Roman Sionis / Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) is attempting to ally himself with. When the two become at odds, Roman and his sidekick Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina) kidnap Keo and his family at the Gotham docks and cut their faces off.

Will Batman Appear in The Penguin?

While speaking to SFX Magazine prior to the show’s debut, The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc and The Batman director Matt Reeves confirmed that Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne / Batman will not make any sort of cameo appearance in the series.

“I understand why people’s desire would be to have Batman, or to think that unless Batman’s in a show or a film then it doesn’t have the same punch,” LeFranc explained. “To me I think it packs a different punch. Matt’s films are through the lens of the Batman, so you’re high up, looking down on the city. It’s a different perspective. With Oz, you’re in the city streets, you’re in the grit and the muck and the grime. He’s looking up, wanting to claw his way to the top. So it’s a different experience. I think Gotham is an interesting enough city that it deserves to have more doors unlocked within it, and for us to walk through those and see what we think.”  

“I don’t feel like it’s missing something fundamental,” Reeves echoed. “I feel like it’s an extension of what is fundamentally there. We know this is the world of Batman. You’re going down a different alley. So the spectre of Batman is there. The spectre of the Riddler is there. The spectre of everything that happens in the last movie is there. It informs it. And it’s exactly where we begin.”

What Is The Penguin About?

The Penguin is the next chapter in The Batman saga from Matt Reeves.The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere on both HBO and Max every Sunday night.

The post The Penguin Episode 3 Has a Weird DCEU Connection appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin Episode 3 “Bliss” finally revealed the new drug that Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) and her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) were planning to unleash on the streets of Gotham City: Bliss. It was this new narcotic that would’ve allowed the Falcone kids to up-end their father’s hold on the drug “Drops,” with drug profits that they alone would control. Penguin (Colin Farrell) ruined that plan when he impulsively killed Alberto (Episode 1) – but after convincing Sofia that the killer was a traitor from her own camp (Episode 2), Oz actually got her to bring him in on the new venture.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!

In The Penguin Episode 3, Sofia takes Oz to the secret warehouse where she is manufacturing the new drug, Bliss. Oz immediately notices deliveries coming into the facility – bags marked with the logo of Arkham State Hospital – revealing that it was Sofia who actually came up with the scheme for this new drug, during her years there. Inside the warehouse, Sofia also reveals that her new drug is made from a very rare and fragile mushroom, which has blood-red spores on top of it. These “Bleeding-Tooth” fungi spores produce a euphoric effect (hence Oz giving it the name, “Bliss”), which Sofia plans to sell as the ultimate party drug.

Later on in the episode, we see Penguin and his crew make their first play, selling Bliss to an entire club of ravers. The drug has the desired effect, with partygoers left in a literal state of bliss from taking the substance, allowing them to not only sell out of their supply but also convince a Triad gang leader to go into business with them. The drug game in Gotham has officially changed.

Is The Penguin Introducing Poison Ivy to The Batman Universe? 

There are several immediate questions about Bliss that Batman fans should consider. The biggest one is who knew about the euphoric effects of those mushrooms, and how to cultivate it into a consumable drug to pacify patients? 

In DC lore Poison Ivy’s alter-ego is “Dr. Pamela Isley,” a PhD botanist working in Gotham City. After suffering some brutal personal tragedy (depending on the version of the story) Isley is transformed into a being who can control plant life – but obviously, that superpowered version one be what we get in The Batman Universe. However, a version of Ivy who offers a naturalistic alternative to the pharmaceutical industry (and maybe pays the price?) seems much more likely. 

Trailers for The Penguin have teased flashback scenes of Sofia Falcone while at Arkham – could we be in for a cameo from Dr. Pam Isley? Establishing who helped Sofia learn about the mushrooms and develop the Bliss drug seems like necessary backstory – as well as a perfect pathway to getting a version of Poison Ivy that is more in line with Matt Reeves’ Batman Universe. With Gotham having been flooded by The Riddler, environmental issues would logically be at the forefront of Gotham City’s concerns – and a perfect reason for an environmental terrorist to strike. 

Bliss could just be one hand of Poison Ivy’s offerings; the other hand could hold pestilence and/or death, in the form of other rare plants. 

The Penguin airs on Sunday nights on HBO and streaming on Max. 

The post Did The Penguin Just Tease Batman Villain Poison Ivy? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Penguin has made a breakout star of Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone, who has gotten an exciting re-invention within The Batman Universe Matt Reeves is building. In just two episodes Milioti has generated a dedicated fan base – with trailers for The Penguin teasing even bigger, darker, moments of her performance to come. However, like most TV shows or movies telling stories about gangsters, criminals, or other dangerous people, some fans may be taking things the wrong way. 

Case in point: The Batman’s official Twitter account (currently in support of The Penguin) finally had to step in and address the level of thirst there is for Sofia Falcone being shared online. When one Twitter user posted a picture of Milioti as Sofia with the caption “I can fix her,” The Penguin team dropped the perfect response:

“Good luck with that.” 

So far, Sofia Falcone has proven to be as cunning, ruthless, and unstable in temperament as her father, Carmine Falcone. We know that Carmine had Sofia committed to Arkham State Hospital for a decade and that Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) had a hand in putting her there. Episode 2’s introduction of Dr. Juilan Rush (Theo Rossi) also revealed that underneath her cold, calculating demeanor, Sofia has a volcanic level of rage and trauma she’s sitting on. In fact, Sofia has one body under her belt and another body dropped at her behest over two episodes, bringing her to a one-body-per-episode average so far. If that rate continues, Sofia Falcone will but Tony Soprano and other onscreen mobsters to shame. 

There’s always a level of fascination (and infatuation) with mobsters, gangsters, killers, and other characters operating in the shadowy side of life. The Sopranos creator David Chase and late Tony Soprano actor James Gandolfini were both candid in expressing their concerns about Tony being perceived in any kind of heroic light when the show sought to expose his psychotic and immoral nature. Sofia Falcone is walking a much finer line as a character – violent, yes (she is “The Hangman” killer), but an outcast even within a family of vipers, with all indication that she’s also a victim of some gross circumstance that put her in Arkham. 

That’s all to say: Sofia Falcone is not the lady DC fans want to put on the mantle of “Relationship goals.” It’ll only lead to toxicity and heartbreak. 

As for the marketing team behind The Penguin: well played. They’re working at Wendy’s levels of social media trolling. 

The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday nights on HBO, and streams on Max. 

The post The Penguin Team Drops Best Response to Batman Fans’ Sofia Falcone Thirst appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Thanks to the current release of HBO’s The Penguin, Colin Farrell has been back on our television screens — and it looks like he isn’t leaving anytime soon. On Wednesday, it was announced that Apple TV+ has renewed Sugar for a forthcoming second season. The series, which stars Farrell as Detective John Sugar, premiered its first season earlier this year to great critical acclaim.

“Since its premiere, audiences have been gripped by the mysteries and twists of ‘Sugar,’ with an incredible performance by Colin Farrell at the center,” Matt Cherniss, head of programming for Apple TV+, echoed. “Colin, Simon Kinberg, Audrey Chon and the entire team behind this series have brilliantly blended genres to create a compelling, can’t-miss series that keeps viewers guessing, and we cannot wait to see where Detective John Sugar finds himself in season two.”

What Is Sugar About?

Sugar follows John Sugar, a private investigator recruited by a wealthy movie producer to investigate the disappearance of his granddaughter. In addition to Farrell, Season 1 of the series starred Kirby, Amy Ryan, Dennis Boutsikaris, Nate Corddry, Alex Hernandez, and James Cromwell.

“It has been incredibly exciting to see audiences around the world embrace Sugar, and we are thrilled to return for a second season,” executive producers Audrey Chon and Simon Kinberg said in a statement. “We’re so grateful to our partners at Apple for their support, our showrunner Sam Catlin, the brilliant Colin Farrell, and of course, our viewers. We can’t wait to get John Sugar back on the case.”

What Will Sugar Season 2 Be About?

According to Apple TV+, season two of Sugar will see Sugar find himself back in Los Angeles taking on another missing person’s case, as he continues to look for answers surrounding his missing sister. As fans who have seen the first season of the series know, that will surely build upon the surprising twist that Sugar is secretly a space alien.

“I think it would be an opportunity to continue Sugar to figure out where he fits into planet Earth because he was here on a mission in season 1 and he was part of a community of people like him in season 1,” Kinberg told Den of Geek in a recent interview. “Now he does not have a stated mission from his community, he has the mystery of wanting to figure out his family. He does not have a mystery to solve nor a larger question about the human species to solve for his own species. The second season would really go from “Who are these people and who are we in relation to them” to something a bit more personal, like “How do I find my place, my home, and my people down here?” While the mystery for him would be more personal and we’d want to find a new mystery for him to solve as a detective, it would be an even more intimate season because he’d really be alone. He’d have no, at least what he thought to be, protectors down here.”

Will The Penguin Get a Season 2?

At the moment, The Penguin has not been renewed for a sophomore season, with many assuming that Farrell will instead reprise his role in 2026’s The Batman Part II and further installments of the saga.

“I don’t know, man,” Farrell said of Season 2 in a recent interview. “Don’t get me wrong — I loved it — but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I f—ing wanted it to be finished. I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.'”

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The Penguin Episode 2 gave viewers their first real taste of what a full-fledged action scene looks like in the show. (SPOILERS!) At the start of the latest episode “Inside Man”, Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell)  double-crosses the Falcone mob family by informing their rivals in the Maroni mob when and where to find the drug stockpile the Falcones are trying to relocate to another town.

 Oz gets himself caught up when The Falcone underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) orders him to ride on the truck that’s getting hit; the Maroni heist goes down and Oz is forced to fight for his life while still keeping his cover with the Falcones. The result is a bloody shootout on the backstreets of Gotham City, which proves that The Penguin will not slouch when it comes to major action set pieces.

Reactions to the Penguin seem to indicate that the violence and action have been impressing viewers (if not shocking them). However, during HBO’s “The Penguin – Inside Episode 2” featurette, Visual Effects Supervisor Johnny Han revealed that the team working on Penguin actually developed a new type of prop gun to use on set – one that could offer the actors the physical interaction they needed, give the directors and VFX teams something convincing to build on, and keep everyone on set safer than the prop guns that used to be used in such sequences: 

“So for ‘FEMA heist’ our team developed these flash guns where they look like regular guns but they have an enormously bright camera flash that could be triggered by the actors so that they could wield it and feel that flash of light as they pull the trigger,” Han explained. “We felt this was a really unique approach to doing gunfire because for safety it helps us not use real guns on set.”

Hollywood’s use of prop guns in film and TV productions once again gained infamy after the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming the western movie Rust in 2021. A prop gun that had supposedly been cleared for use on set actually discharged a live round while actor Alec Baldwin was pointing the weapon down at a camera that Hutchins was holding, while filming a scene. It was the same sort of accident that also claimed the life of actor Brandon Lee while filming The Crow in 1993.  

The legal consequences and public backlash to the Rush shooting re-opened the discourse on using real guns in film and TV productions, with many stunt and VFX teams exploring new possibilities for filming shootouts. That said, there have been criticisms from both performers and fans that using rubber guns and adding muzzle flashes and noise as post-production VFX simply cannot compare to the realism of prop guns and blanks. The team behind The Penguin may be onto something with weighted prop guns that actually produce muzzle flash lighting effects. 

The Penguin is now airing Sunday nights at 9 ET on HBO, and is streaming on Max. 

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 2, “Inside Man.” “‘When faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, your only option is to act swiftly — some might even say, irrationally. Removing the most dangerous elements first… and methodically attacking each subsequent challenge in a separate, deliberate manner.'” 

In Batman: The Long Halloween — the 13-issue comic book by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale that influenced 2022’s The Batman movie — the Dark Knight recites the words of his surgeon father while methodically attacking the costumed rogues assembled to kill the “untouchable” crime lord of Gotham City: Carmine “The Roman” Falcone. Batman is able to subdue Solomon Grundy, the Joker, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Mad Hatter, and Scarecrow, but Falcone is ultimately shot dead by the newly-disfigured “freak” Two-Face.

The series follows the triumvirate of Batman, Captain Jim Gordon, and crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent as they unravel the mystery of Holiday, a serial killer committing murders coinciding with holidays. The Holiday Killer marks the calendar with members of the Falcone Family, starting with The Roman’s nephew, Johnny Viti, on Halloween night; so begins “the long Halloween.” These holiday-themed slayings include Falcone’s bodyguard, Milos Grappa; Falcone’s sister, Carla Viti; and Falcone’s son, Alberto Falcone.

Alberto is the victim in 1997’s Batman: The Long Halloween #4, set on New Year’s Eve. However, Alberto is eventually revealed as Holiday when he assassinates Sal “The Boss” Maroni, Falcone’s chief rival for control of Gotham, after the mob boss hurls acid in Dent’s face. Alberto faked his death and — in another twist — is not the only Holiday killer.

The Penguin‘s “Inside Man” episode pays homage to Alberto’s comic counterpart at Berto’s (Michael Zegen) memorial service, where old footage of her brother on New Year’s sends Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) out of the room. She then encounters her cousin, Carla (Boardwalk Empire‘s Aleksa Palladino), and issues a warning about her young niece, Gia: “Make sure you keep her protected. A young woman in this Family… it might not end well for her.” 

Like her comic book counterpart, Sofia was a serial killer known as Hangman; but in the comics, it’s Sofia herself who kills Alberto in The Long Halloween sequel series Batman: Dark Victory. In remixing The Long Halloween, it’s Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) who is taking an almost surgical-like approach to methodically dismantling the Falcones.

One week after the Riddler (Paul Dano)killed Carmine Falcone(John Turturro) and blew up Gotham’s seawall, turningparts of Gothaminto a no man’s land in The Batman,Oz impulsively shoots and kills the heir to the Falcone empire after he mocks his aspirations to be remembered like the gangster Rex Calabrese. 

Oz then implicates the mob boss Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown) in Berto’s death as he makes a move on the Drops drug operation in Gotham, and plans to blackmail underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) over his affair with the wife of the new Don, Luca Falcone (Scott Cohen). A wrinkle to this plot is a captured Maroni capo who can expose him, so Oz murders Ervad (Fajer Al-Kaisi), abandons his scheme to frame Johnny for Berto’s death, and makes Sofia believe her brother has been avenged when Don Luca guns down alleged rat Callisto (Berto Colon). Finally, Oz forms an alliance with Sofia as she goes to take what is rightfully hers: her father’s place as head of the Family. 

By manipulating the Falcones against the Maronis and eliminating the Family one by one, Oz tells Victor (Rhenzy Feliz): “We’re one step closer to the top.”

New episodes of The Penguin premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.

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The Penguin picks up after the events of The Riddler’s devastation of Gotham in The Batman, and that’s a continuing theme into The Penguin’s second episode. The Riddler’s actions and the harm they caused to the city have some ties to a classic Batman story from the comics, and that story is actually mentioned out loud during the new episode as well. That story is the 1999 event No Man’s Land, though there are some ties to other Batman comic stores that lead into that as well, and here’s how it works its way into the show. Spoilers for The Penguin episode 2 are incoming from here on out.

They Lost Everything

Oz invites some of his crew, including Vic, to his place for a get-together. He also invites Eve Karlo and her girls over, including Rox, and then introduces Vic to Rox before stepping away. Oz heads to his room to look over some of the documents he found in Carmine Falcone’s safe.

After he steps away, Vic and Rox start talking and she asks him where he’s from. Vic says “I’m from Crown Point,” and Rox then talks about her cousin who lived over there and how bad things got after what The Riddler did. Rox says “Yeah my cousin lived over there, she said it’s like a no man’s land now or something. I mean, they lost everything.” That No Man’s Land part probably made a few longtime Batman fans smile, but if you aren’t familiar with that story, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

The Cataclysm

To understand No Man’s Land, we first have to take a trip back to 1996. That’s when the storyline known as Contagion is released, sticking Batman and Gotham in the midst of a mutated strain of the Ebola virus called the Apocalypse Virus. This was enacted by the Order of St. Dumas (Azrael’s old crew), and though a cure was found for that strand eventually, it is once again mutated and spreading in the next storyline titled Legacy.

This leads Batman into direct conflict with Ra’s al Ghul, who is then in control of the virus and enacting plans to spread it. Batman and the rest of the Bat Family manage to stop Ra’s and the League of Shadows and find a vaccine for the virus as well, but they aren’t able to stop several suicide bombers from attacking the GCPD headquarters.

 That leads us to 1998 when a Batman storyline called Cataclysm took place. Gotham City hasn’t experienced an earthquake in some time, but that all changes when an earthquake registering 7.6 on the Richter scale hits and absolutely devastates the city and everyone in it. While some buildings built by Wayne still stand, many of the skyscrapers and buildings crumble due to the shock, and then as gas mains explode the fires start to overtake parts of the city.

Alfred almost dies after Wayne Manor collapses and Batman is closed off in the Batcave, unable to get out. He does eventually make it out and various members of the Bat Family come to help once they finally are able to get into the city, but it’s absolute chaos, and over 100,000 people are dead due to the devastation. Combined with the events of Contagion and Legacy, Cataclysm leads the Government to do something drastic with Gotham, and that brings us to 1999.

No Man’s Land

After the earthquake and the previous events in Gotham, the United States cuts Gotham off completely, literally and figuratively. Bridges are destroyed connecting Gotham to other cities, and the military prevents anyone from getting in. Even superheroes like Superman are told to stay out, though in some cases it’s by Batman and not the government. Things get worse when the various villains start fighting for control, each claiming different areas of the city.

Then there’s the fact that Batman tries to help from the outside first, but it doesn’t work, and things have only gotten worse during his time away. No Man’s Land deals with a lot of unexpected alliances being made due to the conditions of the city, and others like The Joker and The Penguin cause chaos either directly or indirectly to make things even worse.

 It’s actually Lex Luthor who ends up helping rebuild the city and mending its relationship to the United States, though as with anything Lex, it’s all the more beneficial for him than anyone else. The storyline officially ended in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #94, though it had a number of tie-ins across all of the Batman titles.

What did you think of No Man’s Land, and would you like to see more elements of that storyline featured in The Batman? You can talk all things comics and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

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The second episode of The Penguin debuted on HBO and Max on Sunday, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference may have teased another DC character’s debut. Spoilers for the second episode of The Penguin lurk below! Only look if you want to know! Part of the episode concerns criminal dealings in one of Gotham’s lesser-known neighborhoods, as Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) tries to steal drugs for the benefit of Salvatore Maroni’s (Clancy Brown) massive drug empire. More specifically, the ordeal takes place in a neighborhood named Robbinsville — a section of the city that has only sporadically factored into the comics and several episodes of Fox’s Gotham television show. 

While the spelling of Robbinsville is named after Batman and Detective Comics comic creator Frank Robbins, the moniker also raises a unique possibility — that it could have a connection to a young Dick Grayson potentially becoming Robin at a later point in The Batman saga. Depending on how the franchise’s creative team might approach introducing the young ward into the life of Bruce Wayne / Batman (Robert Pattinson), it could use the neighborhood of Robbinsville as partial inspiration for the “Robin” code name, depending on Dick’s connection to the city.

Will Dick Grayson Appear in The Batman Part II?

At the moment, there is no confirmation that Dick Grayson will play a role in 2026’s The Batman Part II or other parts of the onscreen saga — but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating on the topic. 2022’s The Batman already had a prevailing theory that the son of deceased mayor Don Mitchell Jr. would eventually become Robin, after he wore a red ninja costume in the film’s opening scene, and shared a few knowing moments of eye contact with Batman throughout the film.

“Interesting. Um, no,” Reeves told CinemaBlend at the time. “But do you know what? It’s a cool idea. It wasn’t the intention! But actually… why would I say that? Why would I… because it’s a cool idea.” 

What Is The Penguin About?

The Penguin is the next chapter in The Batman saga from Matt Reeves.The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere on both HBO and Max every Sunday night.

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The Penguin Episode 2 “Inside Man” saw Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) go from the frying pan into the fire. After convincing the relentless Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) that Sal Maroni killed her brother instead of him, Oz found himself having to both re-prove his worth to the Falcones, while also delivering on the promises he made to the Maronis. However, just when it looked like Oz would finally get squeezed between a rock and a hard place, he once again managed to wriggle his way clear. Not only did Oz keep himself in the clear, he actually made an ally of the one person who had the least reason to trust him. 

(WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!) 

Even with some bloody hiccups, Oz successfully acted as the “inside man” during the Falcones’ attempt to relocate their drops operation, allowing Maroni’s crew to ambush the shipment and hijack the product. Even though Oz came out of the heist clean, Sofia knew that there had to be a rat in the crew, but couldn’t get traction with the new would-be don, her Uncle Luca Falcone (Scott Cohen), or underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly). Sofia took matters into her own hands, bribing a corrupt junkie cop to locate surviving members of the Maroni crew. Instead, Sofia got an injured Maroni goon dumped on the doorstep of her brother’s funeral and tried to get information about the mole out of him. 

Oz and his sidekick Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) scrambled to frame Viti for the betrayal, going so far as to coerce the goon into lying for them. However, when Vic drops the ball, Oz has to pivot to killing the goon and framing Sofia’s main bodyguard as the mole. In the aftermath, Sofia is left feeling like she’s on the outs with the male-dominated family and turns her attention back to what she and her brother Alberto were working on a new drug that will supersede the drops industry. Since she’s short on muscle, Sofia turns to Oz (of all people!) to be her new ally. 

It’s been noted by critics and fans alike that The Penguin is at its best when Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti are paired onscreen together – and the ending of Episode 2 tees up Episode 3 to be an entire showcase of the actors bantering and playing off one another. While it seems like it will be fun, this team-up comes with the proverbial ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging over it, since Oz and Sofia’s volatile history – plus the fact that he did kill her brother and is sabotaging her family – inevitably need to be revealed. 

The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max. 

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