Posted in: HBO, Movies, TV | Tagged: the batman, The Penguin

The Penguin: Colin Farrell on What Would Bring Him Back for Season 2

The Penguin star Colin Farrell is definitely open to the idea of a Season 2 return, but it depends on having a "great idea" and the scripts.

By the time the credits rolled on the finale of DC Studios, Showrunner Lauren LeFranc, and EPs Matt Reeves and Dylan Clark's Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti-starring The Penguin, we could see how things have been set up for Reeves's upcoming The Batman II (more on that in a minute). But what about after that? Previously, Reeves shared that there have been conversations about expanding "The Batman Epic Crime Saga" with additional limited series – though nothing specific regarding a second series go-around for Oz (Farrell) and Sofia (Milioti). Though sharing recently that he wasn't looking to get back into the costume and makeup anytime soon, Farrell is making it clear that he's definitely open to the idea of a second season. "

"If there's a great idea [for season two], and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course, I would do it," Farrell shared with The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that went live shortly after the finale – with the reactions from viewers being a primary motivator for the actor. "For me, the bar for success is not very high. It's, 'Do most people like it?' — just the simplicity of that. I love being in things that are critically approved — it's much better than the alternative — but I've been around long enough [to know] that it's the audience who are really the most important critics," he added.

The Penguin: How HBO's Spinoff Series Set Up The Batman II

At the end of "A Great of Little Thing, we see Oz and Eve (Carmen Ejogo) celebrating Oz's new status – but it's one that came with a painful price for a lot of folks. For Sofia, it was a fate worse than death: arrested and returned to Arkham State Hospital. But when Oz heads over to see his mom with Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) to share the good news – and to seek her approval – he learns that Francis Francis (Deirdre O'Connell) suffered a major stroke, leaving her in a vegetative state but with her eyes open. Believing that family makes him weak after a heart-to-heart with Vic, Oz murders his right-hand man, making the crime look like a murder before walking off (with a whole ton of symbolism in that scene where Oz tosses Vic's ID into the river).

But some very interesting threads remain. Though back in Arkham, Sofia appears to be under the care of a returned Dr. Rush (Theo Rossi), who shares with Sofia a letter from her half-sister – Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz's Catwoman in The Batman), who's looking to connect. Meanwhile, with his mother being cared for in his private residence on another floor, Oz plays out some serious mommy issues while dancing with Eve (even having her dress like his mother), speaking to her and asking her to speak to him like he wanted Francis to – that she loves him and is proud of him. But just when Oz is at his moment confident, a very familiar Bat Signal lights up the sky. It looks like someone has caught the attention of Robert Pattinson's Batman.

"That's something that we figured out early on. It felt like an elegant handoff to the movie," LeFranc shared with Deadline Hollywood. "That was always a conversation that Matt Reeves and I had. Should Batman be in our show or not? I know it became sort of a controversial thing to say that he shouldn't, but it really just felt like it was detracting from our characters. Batman takes up a lot of space. So, in that regard, it just didn't feel appropriate for the characters in our show. If Oz has now achieved a level of power where Batman is noticing him, that's really what we wanted to signify in the end."

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