The Penguin’s rise to power may have been teased by the end of The Batman, but the spinoff series is going to show audiences exactly how Oz Cobb claws his way to the very top of the mobster pile.
The Penguin is expected to release on Max later this month, and a new featurette has been released giving fans a good look at the themes of the series as well as Gotham’s criminal underbelly—including what remains of the Falcone crime family.
The Penguin: A Dark American Dream
The Batman had made it clear that despite Bruce’s noble intentions as the Dark Knight, there is still a part of the city that he has somehow undermined—and that’s where The Penguin is going to be placing its focus.
In a new featurette from Max, fans get a good look at the scope of the show thanks to director Matt Reeves, and some key players have also been introduced, like Falcone’s daughter Sofia. Check this out:
Reeves himself explains the show, “To me what was very important is this idea of the high and the low; the idea of the parts of the city that are insulated, and then the people who are struggling just day to day to get by. The Penguin is really looking at the profound corruption of Gotham. It’s kind of a dark American dream story, really.”
Sofia Falcone
Though Oz is touted as the lead of the series, the show introduces an antagonist in the form of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). Though she wasn’t mentioned in the movie, Sofia is apparently the daughter of Carmine Falcone (making her Catwoman’s sister), and is considered to be the next in line to take over the family—something that Oz is effectively trying to do for himself.
Sofia also has a brother in the form of Alberto (Michael Zegen) who is considered to be the ‘Fredo’ to her ‘Michael Corleone’. Interestingly enough, the two are actually characters from the comics, and they both appeared in Batman: The Long Halloween as key villains—too bad for anyone thinking that the ‘Sofia’ name was an homage to Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter who ended up getting cast in The Godfather Part III.
The Penguin and His Mother Issues
A character that was created for the series though, is Oz’s mother, Francis (Deirdre O'Connell). Showrunner Lauren LeFranc explains, “When I first started to dissect Oz and figure out what was driving him, my realization was, ‘I think he wants to be loved and revered.’ To me the deeper root issue would come from his mother. I wanted to write an interesting, complicated, tough-as-nails broad, and so I created Francis for that.”
Anyone who watched The Sopranos knows that Tony Soprano also had a manipulative mother who was pulling his strings. With Sofia Falcone mirroring the story of Michael in The Godfather, it does seem like The Penguin is going to be a fusion of both of those stories rolled into one dark comic book setting.
Watch out for The Penguin when it premieres on Max on Sept. 19.