According to Max (the streaming service, not just some guy named “Max”), The Penguin is one of the biggest shows the streamer has released since The Last of Us. Starring Colin Farrell, The Penguin carries on the titular villain’s story from Matt Reeves’ The Batman, exploring Oz Cobb’s rise to power in Gotham City’s criminal underbelly. The first episode premiered last week, and, according to statistics released by Max, the HBO Original is a major international success.
The Penguin has garnered the biggest 4-day audience for a new show on Max in every global region, since The Last of Us released in 2023. The series was watched by an average of 5.3 million cross-platform (HBO and Max) viewers in the US over its premiere weekend (via Deadline). While it fell short of beating The Last of Us‘ record, The Penguin managed to outrank the final season of Succession (4.9 million) and the second season of The White Lotus (4.1 million).
As well as being a hit in its own right, The Penguin has also greatly renewed public interest in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Also available to stream on Max, The Batman reached 3.5x more accounts than the previous weeks before The Penguin‘s debut. Only the first episode of the new series has been released so far. It will be interesting to see whether The Penguin will be able to maintain its viewership figures across the remaining seven episodes.
Could The Penguin Get a Second Season?
Fans have barely finished devouring the first episode of The Penguin, and there’s already talk of a second season. The idea for the series came from Colin Farrell’s desire to give Oz more screentime — as he only appeared in a handful of scenes in The Batman. As well as being a ratings hit, The Penguin has garnered incredible reviews, sitting at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. All this bodes well for Max to greenlight a second season. But it’s not just fans that want to see a second season of The Penguin. Dylan Clark, a producer on the series, believes Oz Cobb has more stories to tell. Nothing has been greenlit yet, but Clark hopes that fans will get to see Cobb again in a future season of The Penguin. He said:
“There’s absolutely more story inside of Oz and other characters in this world.”
The success of The Penguin also bodes well for future spin-offs from The Batman Part 2. The Penguin was initially one of three shows stemming from The Batman. However, GCPD and Arkham Asylum were both shelved by Max — although it appears the Arkham Asylum series is back on the table. Matt Reeves (who serves as an executive producer on The Penguin) hopes the show’s success will lead to more spin-offs, which could explore the rest of Batman’s rogues’ gallery. Reeves said:
“We are talking to HBO, in long-form, especially as the movies are so focused on being Batman’s point of view, to have the real estate to really look into who these rogue galleries characters are.”
New episodes of
The Penguin
will be released weekly on Max and HBO.