The Penguin Star Shares Challenge of Her Killer Gotham Villain Role

Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) isn’t the only iconic DC Comics villain to star in the upcoming HBO series The Penguin, as Cobb is set to face off with Cristin Milioti‘s Sofia “The Hangman” Falcone. Set a week after the events of The Batman, which saw crime lord Carmine Falcone murdered and half of Gotham City flooded, Gotham’s criminal underbelly has been left without a de facto leader. Several players are fighting for control of the chaotic city, including Carmine’s own daughter, Sofia, fresh out of the ominous Arkham Asylum.

Speaking to TotalFilm, Cristin Milioti discussed her role in The Penguin, and revealed how she got into character. Playing a key player in Gotham’s most notorious crime family means Milioti had to go to some dark places to portray Sofia. Add in a lengthy incarceration at Arkham, and Milioti’s performance required specificity to balance out Sofia’s tempered and unhinged sides. To develop the character, Milioti worked with a movement coach, Julia Crockett, to develop Sofia’s mannerisms and physicality. She explained:

“I worked with this incredible acting coach and movement coach, Julia Crockett, and experimented with a lot of physical stuff. Sofia has a cauldron bubbling inside her at all times, and she’s in the most unsafe place she could possibly be. How low can she swallow this for, sit on this volcano, until it finally erupts?”

In the comics, Sofia Falcone is a notorious serial killer, known as The Hangman. The character’s most iconic portrayal is in Jeph Loeb’s Batman: The Long Halloween. When a mysterious killer, known only as “Holiday,” seeks revenge on Gotham’s criminal dynasties, Carmine frees Sofia from prison, hoping to use her merciless violence to take down “Holiday.” It is highly unlikely that the plot lines from The Long Halloween will feature in The Penguin, especially as it has been confirmed that Pattinson’s Batman won’t appear in the new show. However, the ruthless aspects of Sofia Falcone shown in the comic run are so intrinsic to her character, it is a good basis to start for fans wondering which comics to read before The Penguin hits HBO and Max this month.

Sofia Falcone Introduces “Interesting” Female Character to the Crime Genre

Sofia Falcone will make for an interesting adversary against Farrell’s Penguin. When the series was first announced, some fans were expecting a classic Batman vs Penguin story told from Oz Cobb’s perspective. However, pitting Oz and Sofia against each other allows the series to dive head first into its re-working of the crime genre.

As well as giving Cobb a worthy adversary (who doesn’t dress like a bat), showrunner Lauren LeFranc wrote Sofia as the main villain to shake up the genre that is so often male-dominated. Sitting in the rare position as a female showrunner in charge of a crime series, LeFranc wanted to use The Penguin to introduce genuinely “interesting” female characters to the genre. LeFranc explained:

“Very few women have been able to write these kinds of movies or television shows. I think my perspective on Oz, and masculinity in general, is different. And that made me also want to surround him with really interesting, complicated women. In traditional crime dramas, rarely are the women as interesting as the men. So I took this as an opportunity to see what had been done before me, to respect and honor the genre, and then to also evolve it.”