The Penguin (TV series)

The Penguin is an American crime drama television miniseries developed by Lauren LeFranc for HBO. Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, it serves as a spin-off from the 2022 film The Batman, and follows Oz Cobb's rise to power in Gotham City's criminal underworld. LeFranc serves as the showrunner of the series, which is produced by DC Studios in association with Warner Bros. Television.
Colin Farrell stars as the titular character, reprising his role from The Batman, alongside Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Deirdre O’Connell, Clancy Brown, Carmen Ejogo, Michael Zegen, Berto Colón, Scott Cohen, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Theo Rossi, James Madio, Nadine Malouf, Joshua Bitton, David H. Holmes, Daniel J. Watts, Jared Abrahamson, Ben Cook, Jayme Lawson, Aleska Palladino, Craig Walker, Tess Soltau, Marié Botha, Michael Kelly, and Mark Strong.
Development on the series was underway by September 2021, and HBO Max ordered it in March 2022, after The Batman was released. The film's director, Matt Reeves, supervised the writing and was involved in hiring the creative team. Filming began in March 2023 in New York but was halted in June by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. Production resumed in late November and concluded in February 2024. The series moved from HBO Max's successor Max to HBO in July 2024. Craig Zobel directed the first three episodes, Helen Shaver and Kevin Bray directed two each, and Jennifer Getzinger directed the finale.
The Penguin was broadcast in the United States from September 19 to November 10, 2024, spanning eight episodes. The series received critical acclaim for its performances, writing, direction, tone, and production value. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film for Farrell.
Following the events of The Batman (2022), the series explores the rise to power of Oz Cobb / The Penguin in Gotham City's criminal underworld.
By September 2021, HBO Max was developing a spin-off series from the film The Batman (2022), focusing on the character Oz / the Penguin, portrayed in the film by Colin Farrell. The Batman director Matt Reeves suggested to studio executives that a sequel film could explore the Penguin further, but they wanted to use the idea for a spin-off series instead. Lauren LeFranc was hired to write the series, while Reeves and The Batman producer Dylan Clark were set as executive producers through their respective production companies 6th & Idaho and Dylan Clark Productions. They had previously begun development on another spin-off series focused on the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), but by early March 2022 that series had been put on hold in favor of spin-offs focused on existing comic book characters; of these, the Penguin series was the furthest along in development at that time. The GCPD series was no longer moving forward by July 2024, though some elements were integrated into the Penguin series. Reeves was unsure then whether he would be directing the series, which he said would come before a sequel to The Batman and could tie into that potential second film. Following The Batman's release, the limited series received a straight-to-series order from HBO Max using the working title The Penguin, with LeFranc confirmed to serve as showrunner and executive producer. 6th & Idaho's Daniel Pipski and Adam Kassan were also set as executive producers, along with Rafi Crohn as a co-executive producer. Star Colin Farrell said in July that Reeves would not be directing the series but was providing guidance on the structure of the scripts and was involved in choosing their director. In October, Craig Zobel was hired to direct the first three episodes of the series and to serve as an executive producer.
After James Gunn and Peter Safran became the co-CEOs of DC Studios in November 2022, future projects for Reeves's The Batman shared universe were set to be overseen by that studio. Gunn had contacted Reeves about his projects by then. When announcing the first projects for the new DC franchise the DC Universe (DCU) in January 2023, Gunn said any project that did not fit into the DCU's shared universe would be labeled as "DC Elseworlds" moving forward. This is the same as how DC Comics uses the Elseworlds imprint to mark comic books that are separate from the main continuity. Reeves' Batman shared universe was set to be a part of this label, including The Penguin. Reeves and Clark refer to their shared universe as the "Batman Epic Crime Saga". Bill Carraro was set as an executive producer by the following month.
The series consists of eight 60-minute-long episodes, totaling approximately six-to-eight hours of content. Farrell felt this length would provide time to explore Oz's origin story and would allow the series to be "endlessly fun", fascinating, and brutal, as it was intended to have a more mature interpretation; the series was ultimately confirmed to receive a TV-MA rating by the TV Parental Guidelines. In April 2023, the series was officially titled The Penguin and announced to be releasing on the streaming service Max, the successor to HBO Max. Helen Shaver was confirmed as a director in December 2023, followed by directors Kevin Bray and Jennifer Getzinger in September 2024.
The series begins one week after the events of The Batman, following the flooding of Gotham City as depicted at the end of the film, which Farrell said made for a "very tricky, very dark story". The series occurs shortly before the events of the film's sequel The Batman – Part II (2027), establishing a "little fabric" of plans that would lead into that film. Farrell said the death of crime boss Carmine Falcone in The Batman had left a power vacuum within Gotham's criminal underworld, resulting in many different forces vying for power. He added the series would be "incredibly violent" and that Oz would face "extraordinary obstacles". Clark said it would show Oz's rise to power and compared the series to Scarface (1983). He added that the series was intended to be a standalone story from The Batman, and would enhance the experience of watching the film. Reeves cited The Long Good Friday (1980) as an additional influence, and said the series was about the American Dream, with Oz being "underestimated... nobody thinks he's capable of doing anything [but he] believes in himself with a visceral violence". Sarah Aubrey, the head of originals for HBO Max, said the goal for the series was to explore Oz's life that is rooted in the streets of Gotham and described him as "a hustler and a strategist with his own ambitions".
LeFranc, Erika L. Johnson, Noelle Valdivia, John McCutcheon, Breannah Gibson, Shaye Ogbonna, Nick Towne, and Vladimir Cvetko wrote episodes of the series. LeFranc had written the pilot script by early March 2022. She was then working on the remaining episodes, when the story for the first season had been finished. Farrell read the first episode by mid-October 2022 and called it "tasty and so unusual", and was excited to further explore the "bang up of Oz" that Reeves envisioned for the character. He was set to read the second and third episodes the following week. The scripts were completed by the start of May 2023.
By the time development was revealed to be underway on the series in September 2021, Farrell had been approached about reprising his role as the Penguin from The Batman, but was not contractually obligated to reprise the role. By December, Farrell officially signed on to star in the series and serve as an executive producer on it. He described working with LeFranc as a similarly collaborative experience to working with Reeves on The Batman. In March 2022, Reeves said there was potential for other characters from the film to appear in the series. At the end of October, Cristin Milioti was cast as the female lead Sofia Falcone. In February 2023, Rhenzy Feliz was cast as Victor Aguilar, a lead role which was believed to be a young man who befriends Cobb and becomes his protégé. Later that month, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Deirdre O'Connell were respectively cast as Johnny Viti, Nadia Maroni, and Francis Cobb.
In March 2023, several actors were cast in recurring roles: Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush. Maroni was portrayed by an uncredited extra in The Batman. Carmen Ejogo, François Chau, and David H. Holmes were cast in recurring roles in April, with Ejogo playing Eve Karlo, while Craig Walker was confirmed to have joined the series by November 2023. In January 2024, Jared Abrahamson was cast in an undisclosed "key" recurring role, and Mark Strong, who portrayed Thaddeus Sivana in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), was revealed in May to be appearing in the series, portraying a younger Carmine Falcone in flashbacks; Strong replaces John Turturro, who portrayed the character in The Batman. LeFranc said Turturro was unable to reprise his role due to scheduling issues, leading to the role being recast with Strong for the series. Turturro agreed that it was partially due to this, yet stipulated another reason was his distaste in the explicit violence towards women present in the series, preferring when it was off-screen like the violence of his portrayal of Falcone in The Batman.
Batman (or his alter ego Bruce Wayne), as portrayed by Robert Pattinson in The Batman, does not appear in the series. Rumors in February 2023 and June 2024 suggested Pattinson would appear in at least one episode; comments from Gunn clarified that there were no issues with the Batman television rights that would prevent the Batman character from appearing in The Penguin. In August 2024, LeFranc and Reeves confirmed the creative team's decision not to feature Batman in the series, citing a desire to explore a different side of Gotham City in their story.
Farrell said in February 2022 that Mike Marino, the makeup designer for The Batman, would return for the series, and he felt the makeup was subtly perfected more, allowing for him to freely explore beyond his facial features. Helen Huang served as the costume designer, and Kalina Ivanov served as the production designer. Reeves said Harvey Weinstein was an inspiration for the Penguin's appearance.
Principal photography began on March 1, 2023, in New York City, using the working title Boss. Darran Tiernan served as the cinematographer for the three episodes directed by Zobel. Soundstage work occurred at Silvercup Studios North in Queens. Filming was set to take place in Westchester County, New York on May 16 when picketers participating in the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike caused production to shut down for the day. After further picketing the following day at the series' sets at a church in Harlem, Manhattan, and at Silvercup North that once again shut down filming, production was paused through May 18. Filming of smaller scenes took place the day after in Brooklyn. In June, production was suspended until after the strike concluded. Filming had been expected to occur over five or six months, and Kelly had one day left of filming to complete before filming was shut down. The writers' strike ended in late September 2023, while the concurrent 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike ended on November 9. At that time, filming on the series was set to resume at the end of the month, and it was considered to be a priority for Warner Bros. Filming resumed on November 27, in the Bronx and took place at Whitestone, Queens the following day. Later episodes features scenes filmed in Yonkers, New York. Kelly had completed filming his scenes by January 2024, and filming wrapped on February 17.
Henk Van Eeghen and Andy Keir are editors on the series.
Mick Giacchino, the son of The Batman composer Michael Giacchino, composed the score for the series.
The first footage from the series' production was released on April 12, 2023, during the Max Day press event. Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood said the footage had "the look of a dark Sopranos, with Farrell playing a full-on crime boss", while Matt Patches at Polygon also highlighted the Sopranos energy and noted it continued to use the "dark, orange-washed aesthetic" from The Batman. Ryan Scott of /Film said the teaser, which combined the series' footage with behind-the-scenes work, was "shockingly put together" given filming had only recently begun then and that it looked like a "very gritty crime drama". He also noted the teaser billed the series as "the next chapter in The Batman saga". Andy Behbakht for Screen Rant said it would be "fascinating to see how" the series was executed with the Penguin being the lead, given there had not been a previous Batman-related series headlined by a particular villain. New footage was included in a teaser for Max's 2024 content line-up in December 2023.
The first trailer was screened on March 21, 2024, for a world premiere at the Series Mania television festival in Lille, France, and it was released online as a teaser trailer the following day. D'Alessandro noted that the Penguin's "philosophical proclamations and tall tales of yore" in the trailer paid homage to Tony Soprano from The Sopranos, while Aaron Couch of The Hollywood Reporter likened the trailer to "DC's answer to The Sopranos". Mark Hughes at Forbes also compared the trailer's vibe to that of The Sopranos and Scarface and noted it maintained the noir aesthetic from The Batman. A second trailer was released on June 20, 2024. James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter noted it included scenes that directly picked up after the ending of The Batman and that it provided a "much more expansive look" at the characters and setting. D'Alessandro acknowledged that the trailer explored the aftermath of Batman's actions from The Batman and highlighted Milioti's Sofia Falcone as being "front and center" in the trailer, calling her a femme fatale who was "not entirely evil" and compared her to similar characters in Batman media released since Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992), which featured Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in that role. Collider's Erick Massoto noted it depicted the Penguin's strategy to become the Gotham crime boss by exploiting the grief of Falcone's family. Meanwhile, Sandy Schaefer of /Film thought Milloti's performance "may just be the show's secret weapon" and agreed it was tonally similar to The Batman. The series was promoted at the Hall H panel during the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con from July 25 to 27. A recreation of the Gotham Ice Truck and Iceberg Lounge were featured, in addition to appearances from the cast and crew alongside the release of the official trailer.
The Penguin premiered in the United States on HBO on September 19, 2024, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, and would be re-aired multiple times through September 22. The subsequent seven episodes then aired every Sunday night at that time from September 29 until November 10, 2024. The series is also available for streaming on Max. It was initially planned for a mid-2024 premiere but was delayed due to the dual Hollywood strikes, and was ultimately moved to the September 2024 release date.
In May 2024, when The Penguin was originally set to be released on Max, Sky Group acquired the broadcast rights to the series in selected European countries where Max did not yet operate. The series began airing day-and-date on Sky Atlantic and Sky's streaming service Now on September 20. In June 2024, after WBD had shifted many of its planned big-budget Max series based on their intellectual properties to instead be HBO originals beginning in 2025, HBO and Max content CEO Casey Bloys said The Penguin was an "obvious fit as an HBO Original" but could not be altered to such because they had already begun the process of licensing it internationally with the Max label. The following month, the series was moved to debut on HBO after the branding was renegotiated.
The Penguin will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD Blu-ray formats on March 18, 2025.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 195 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.25/10. The website's consensus reads: "Depicting Gotham through bone-breaking punches rather than popping onomatopoeia, The Penguin is a grounded crime saga given gravitas by Colin Farrell and a scene-stealing Cristin Milioti." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 72 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Reviewing the show on Sky Atlantic, The London Standard's Martin Robinson gave the series five stars. He hailed it as a "[rich] character study, driven by a world-beating 'give him the Emmy now' performance by Colin Farrell". He observed its influence from "1930s Warner Brothers gangster films". Robinson concluded it was "very much an Italian-American gangster Penguin", and compared the title character to Tony Soprano and Vito Corleone. Empire's Amon Warmann gave it four stars, writing that its expansion of Reeves's film was "satisfying proof that this more grounded take on the character warranted a full series". He wrote of its foremost purpose as a character study into Oswald, and praised the episode with the character's mother as "the series' most unique, intriguing dynamic". Warmann concluded that it was the "empathy" for the characters, particularly Rhenzy Feliz's Victor, which made the series riveting.
In a four-star review, NME's Jordan Bassett said that Cristin Milioti's character was "quietly menacing", and that LeFranc succeeded in creating a Gotham distinct from Reeves's, one "slightly less rainy and ... better lit", yet one that retains "the cynicism boiled into the corruption-infested city." Bassett felt disappointed in the show's decreased budget, observing that it hurt the series's set design, and criticized the first episode's "sluggish" pacing. He wrote that the show sees that "the roots of [Oz's] ambition and seething resentment at the world" forge a "compulsive" narrative. Bassett concluded that the show ended up being "more compelling than it perhaps should be", and that "Farrell is as astonishing as ever".
Slate's Isaac Butler praised Farrell's acting and his "unexpected grace notes" of humor expressed in the role. MovieWeb's Julian Roman declared that "Colin Farrell needs to clear space on the shelf for an Emmy", and hailed his performance as "nothing short of extraordinary." He called the series a "psychologically disturbing gangster epic", and compared it to Scarface (1932) and King of New York (1990). He praised its "blockbuster" production values, writing that they are "integral to its harsh realism", citing Kalina Ivanov's work in particular. Reiterating on Farrell's performance, he observed that the actor "convincingly portrays a man living with a significant disability, but he's also strong and utterly merciless when needed." Roman assigned the series a 4/5.
In a less-positive review, IGN's Erik Adams complained that "Lauren LeFranc and team have taken on more than they can handle", and that its aspects of gnarliness and blood lust are "never as sensational as the big budget and prestige-TV trappings make them out to be." He praised Farrell's "gift of gab and a wounded soulfulness", which kept the character from being a trope. The Daily Telegraph gave it three out of five stars. Ed Power wrote highly of Farrell's reinvention of the Penguin as "a charismatic mobster straight from a Scorsese movie", and felt his return was impressive. He assessed that the creators have created a "grim psychodrama centered on Cobb's troubled relationship with his mentally ill mother", and said that "the only superpower on display is the producers's [sic] ability to take a straightforward story about how Cobb's friendship with Sofia has soured into a deadly rivalry and stretch it into eight hours of often tedious TV." Variety's Aramide Tinubu said that the robust narrative makes it a "masterful examination of criminality", and hailed it as "twisted, disturbing and deeply enthralling." She praised Deirdre O'Connell's performance, and wrote that "the juxtaposition of the [Oz and Sofia] across the show — including flashbacks from their contrasting childhoods and their reactions to losing or gaining dominance — is among the most compelling aspects of [the series]".
Reeves confirmed in July 2024 that Farrell would reprise his role as the Penguin in the untitled The Batman sequel, scheduled for release in 2027. Farrell said that for a while he did not know if he would appear in the sequel and had yet to see a script, stating, "I was told I have five or six scenes." He also stated that he had signed on for three The Batman films.
After the season finale, Farrell said he would be open to starring in a second season of The Penguin after previously stating, "I never want to put on that fucking suit and fucking head again". A method actor, he has gone on record that he was in a mentally dark place during the production due to the dark story. Reeves has also stated that a second season is possible. He had begun discussing ideas for a second season with LeFranc by December 2024.