The Penguin shows an even more brutal side of Gotham City than Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and it was too much to handle for one former cast member. John Turturro played the iconic Batman crime boss Carmine Falcone in Reeves’ movie, posing as a secondary antagonist to Robert Pattinson’s young Bruce Wayne. Carmine Falcone plays a pivotal role in The Penguin, having sent his own daughter Sofia (played by Cristin Milioti) to Arkham Asylum. But audiences were surprised to see Turturro had been replaced in The Penguin‘s flashback scenes, with Mark Strong stepping in this time around. While fans assumed it was a better alternative to digital de-aging, Turturro has revealed the reason is far darker.
Obviously, Carmine Falcone is far from a good person. He has people killed at will, destroys people’s lives with drugs, and is indiscriminately violent. But John Turturro didn’t feel comfortable portraying that on screen in The Penguin. “In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing,” Turturro told Variety. While Carmine Falcone is equally despicable in The Batman, none of his murders are shown on screen. Instead, an audio recording from Selina Kyle’s earpiece reveals Falcone’s violent side. In The Penguin, the violence is overt and ever present on screen. Turturro simply said:
“It happens off-screen. It’s scarier that way.”
Ultimately, John Turturro isn’t resentful or frustrated about the shift in dynamic of Carmine Falcone’s violence in The Penguin.“I did what I wanted to with the role,” the actor continued in the interview. When Turturro signed on for the role, there was no expectation for the character to appear in the spin-off. With Carmine Falcone having died at the end of The Batman‘s second act, it feels like Turturro’s iteration of the Batman villain received a complete arc on screen, and a satisfying ending.
Sofia Falcone Is the Real Star of The Penguin
The Penguin is set just a week after the events of The Batman, which saw The Riddler (Paul Dano) flood Gotham City. Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, the show follows Cobb’s journey to the top of Gotham’s criminal underworld, as he slowly becomes the Penguin fans know and love. While Cobb is the main character in the script, it is Sofia Falcone who steals the show on screen.
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Sofia Falcone is the perfect antagonist to Oz Cobb. They are both equally calculated and cunning, but Sofia has a little bit of heart and sympathy, which allows audiences to gravitate towards her and strangely want her to beat Oz. It is partly a result of the script — Episode 4, which went back in time to Arkham Asylum, is the show’s highest rated episode so far — but it is also largely thanks to Milioti’s incredible performance. The actress imbues Sofia Falcone with a sense of innocence that juxtaposes her malevolent father. Sofia has become a killer, but it is fueled by emotion, rather than financial gain. Fans cannot wait for future episodes to unpack this dynamic even further, as their growing rivalry eventually comes to a head.
Created by Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin is a crime-drama spin-off television series of 2022’s film The Batman. Set shortly after the events of The Batman, Oz Cobb, A.K.A. the Penguin, begins his rise in the underworld of Gotham City as he contends with the daughter of his late boss, Carmine Falcone, for control of the crime family’s empire.
- Release Date
- September 19, 2024
- Cast
- Colin Farrell , Cristin Milioti , Rhenzy Feliz , Michael Kelly , Shohreh Aghdashloo , Deirdre O’Connell , Clancy Brown , James Madio , Scott Cohen , Michael Zegen , Carmen Ejogo , Theo Rossi
- Seasons
- 1