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

The Penguin Posts Best Look Yet at Mark Strong's Carmine Falcone

HBO's Colin Farrell-starring The Penguin posted a look at Mark Strong's Carmine Falcone; Farrell and Cristin Milioti play "Get to Know Me."

We are only days away from the big rollout for the premiere of DC Studios, Showrunner Lauren LeFranc, and EPs Matt Reeves and Dylan Clark's Colin Farrell-starring The Penguin (more on that below), and now we have two very cool updates to pass along. First up, we're getting our best look yet at Mark Strong's Carmine Falcone (replacing John Turturro, who played the role in The Batman) – courtesy of the cover of the Gotham Gazette (though it's probably not under the best circumstances). Following that, Farrell (Oz Cobb) and co-star Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone) question each other on a wide variety of topics in a little round of something that HBO likes to call "Get to Know Me."

"We're in Oz's world," LeFranc shared during an interview with EW ahead of SDCC 2024. "We're living in the underbelly of the city. Oz is a mover and a shaker. He can't always be trusted. He's very smart and very methodical, but he's also extremely impulsive. You can't predict what he's going to do." With the spinoff series set one week after the events of the Robert Pattinson-starring The Batman, the connections between the feature film and streaming series are pretty clear. But LeFranc notes that the series will also serve as a lead-in to the second film (expected in 2026). "We are the bridge between the two films. We're going almost directly into the second film Matt has planned," LeFranc added.

For Reeves, the vision of expanding "The Batman" universe came during writing on the film. "As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, 'Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do. It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros." In fact, Reeves notes in the interview that some elements from the original Gotham PD project made their way into The Penguin – and the team isn't done yet. "There's another television exploration we're going to do," Clark revealed. "We're looking at this entire world as it relates to who Batman is — the antagonists around them, all the crime that has to be navigated in the city — and trying to figure out where are the areas that are best to explore."

A big premiere weekend is set for "The Batman" spinoff series – kicking off on Thursday, September 19th, on HBO (at 9 pm ET/PT, and available to stream on Max). From there, the opener will be shown throughout the weekend – including Sunday, September 22nd (9 pm ET/PT)  – with weekly episodes premiering on Sunday nights at 9 pm ET/PT after (beginning with Sunday, September 29th). Now, here's a look at the extended behind-the-scenes featurette that was released earlier today – followed by an official promo that was released last week:

The HBO Original series stars Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka "The Penguin"), along with Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O'Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo), Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush) and Mark Strong (Carmine Falcone).

The series is executive produced by Matt Reeves, Dylan Clark, Colin Farrell & Lauren LeFranc, who writes and serves as showrunner; Craig Zobel, who directs the first three episodes; and Bill Carraro. Based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane with Bill Finger, the streaming series is produced by Reeves' 6th & Idaho Productions and Dylan Clark Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, where Reeves and 6th & Idaho are under an overall deal. 6th & Idaho's Daniel Pipski also serves as executive producer, and Rafi Crohn is co-executive producer.

"We're in Oz's world," LeFranc shared during an interview with EW ahead of SDCC 2024. "We're living in the underbelly of the city. Oz is a mover and a shaker. He can't always be trusted. He's very smart and very methodical, but he's also extremely impulsive. You can't predict what he's going to do." With the spinoff series set one week after the events of the Robert Pattinson-starring The Batman, the connections between the feature film and streaming series are pretty clear. But LeFranc notes that the series will also serve as a lead-in to the second film (expected in 2026). "We are the bridge between the two films. We're going almost directly into the second film Matt has planned," LeFranc added. Could that mean an appearance from Pattinson's Dark Knight? Really? Did you think they would answer that?

For Reeves, the vision of expanding "The Batman" universe across big and small screens during writing on the film. "As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, 'Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do. It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros." In fact, Reeves notes in the interview that some elements from the original Gotham PD project made their way into The Penguin – and the team isn't done yet. "There's another television exploration we're going to do," Clark revealed. "We're looking at this entire world as it relates to who Batman is — the antagonists around them, all the crime that has to be navigated in the city — and trying to figure out where are the areas that are best to explore."

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