New York Comic Con 2024 (NYCC 2024) kicked off in style with the made man himself, Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) in attendance at HBO’s extended sneak peek and conversation for The Penguin.
In attendance at the panel was Farrell, who is also an Executive Producer, Cristin Milioti, who played Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz, who plays Victor Aguilar, Deidre O’Connell, who plays Oz’s mother Francis Cobb, Michael Kelly, who plays Johnny Viti, Clancy Brown, who plays Sal Maroni, Lauren LeFranc, who is showrunner and EP, and Mike Marino, the show’s Prosthetic Makeup Designer.
Looking for a recap of The Penguin panel? We got you covered. Here’s everything we learned about the DC Studios series at this year’s NYCC 2024 panel.
Things kicked off with a special look at this next week’s episode, as Oz and Victor blow up Oz’s Maserati to cover their escape. As Victor affirms his allegiance to Oz, he gathers more forces to attack a member of the Maroni family named Taj who has been broadcasting on TikTok. They kill everyone around him, threaten him, and we cut to the title.
Then it’s back on Oz talking to Sal Maroni, trying to set up a deal with the family — again — to sell Bliss, his drug. It works, Oz gets the upper hand… But as he’s leaving Blackgate, he sees the reports on Sofia’s massacre in the previous episode.
The panel then welcomed LeFranc, Farrell, and Marino. Asked about their nerd cred, LeFranc noted she actually started with Marvel, reading X-Men comics. “Rogue,” said LeFranc to cheers. “She’s my favorite.” Meanwhile, Farrell shouted out all the classic Penguin actors, though noted that, “Burgess [Meredith]. That’s my homie.”
On joining the show, LeFranc actually started pretty early, knowing that Farrell was attached (“Who? Who’s that guy,” joked LeFranc. “I worked beyond that.”), and reading the script. She saw 40 minutes of The Batman early, and having a better sense of how they were iterating The Penguin she had a better idea of how to handle the show.
As for Farrell, interestingly what drew him most to the idea of doing the show was Oz’s relationship with his mother. “It’s this kind of toxic love they have,” Farrell said.
Meanwhile, Marino noted that there were days on The Batman where they would get Farrell in makeup, and then not shoot with him — so they had a lot of practice by the time they were shooting the TV series. However, there were still challenges because there was a lot more lighting setups and locations. “It’s a huge maintenance to keep this together for so long,” he noted.
As for Farrell, the costume and prosthetics led to the feeling that “A lot of the work was done for me,” calling it both a “puppet” and “marionette” — positively, by the way. Interestingly, the actor added that the original plan on The Batman was not to “bury” Farrell in prosthetics, he was maybe going to get a fake nose so you could see who he is. Obviously, things changed in the process.
And before the next sneak peek, LeFranc, when asked whether we’ll ever see Oz with a top, monocle, or other typical Penguin accouterments, teased, “We pay homage.”
Then we got the next sneak peek, which shows Sofia holding Johnny Viti hostage. She wants money and resources. And when he refuses, she dumps cold water on him, to freeze him to death. That cuts over to Eve Karlo’s (Carmen Ejogo) apartment, where they’re holding Taj hostage. Hey, a double hostage situation! While Oz’s gang watches news footage of the Falcone massacre, Oz rallies the troops explaining that the Falcones never cared about any of them, and reveals his plan: now that Sofia has taken out the Falcones, the Maronis are next. And with things heating up, Oz sends Victor to check on his mother.
Back with Sofia and Johnny, he’s shivering while she smokes on the floor. And that’s when Johnny explains why Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) killed Isabella Falcone: she was going to leave her husband. Sofia doesn’t believe him, of course, but then he explains that her mother was with Carmine because of him. But she “couldn’t f**king take it.” That’s when Johnny offers to help Sofia, to get her “respect.” Probably not the best plan, but we’ll see!
Over to Victor, he gets to the Cobb house, and not only is Frances missing, but the oven and TV are on. Victor finds her, and she thinks in her dementia haze that he’s one of her sons. She breaks through the haze, and Victor discovers a big bruise on her arm. “Oh, I fell,” she explains. “Maybe I was pushed.” But things pick up when Victor lies to Frances and tells her that Oz murdered the Falcones — and is now making a move on the Maronis.
Then with the sneak peek over, it was time for the full panel to arrive. “Not fun,” says Kelly on the scene of Viti being doused with water. “That was the first scene we shot post-strike so that hung over me like a dark cloud, the whole strike… It scared the hell out of me.”
Moving to Milioti, she called the role a “dream” and noted that as funny as it sounds, she’s always wanted to do something like this since she was a child. While she felt that the events of the fourth episode forced Sofia into a position where she became violent, she finds that she’s very good at it. Meanwhile, for Farrell, he added on the “nature versus nurture” thing that, “It’s supposed to be an ascension to power, but it’s also a descent into madness.”
Continued Farrell, “It’s an origin story for everyone. It’s about pain when it’s allowed to fester.”
What about Feliz’s take on why Victor stays with Oz? He traces it back to that “Oz offers him something a bit more exciting,” and with his family dying a week before, “I get to be a part of something now… [And] there’s something he sees in Oz,” in terms of how Oz puffs his chest out a little bit, and he can take away a bit of strength from that, too.
Moving on to talk about why the characters want power, Milioti said, “She wants to win. She wants to prove she deserves it… If I can’t have love, if I can’t this, I want absolutely unmitigated power.”
What about Maroni? “Oh no,” intoned Brown when asked if he’s given up. “He’s biding his time… I can’t tell you. Watch the show. You’ll see. He’s not given up anything.”
On the inspiration for Sofia, LeFranc said she was inspired by Rosemary Kennedy, who was lobotomized in an institution. She was also inspired by the fact that so many Batman villains are already insane, she wanted to explore someone who didn’t start there. LeFranc later added that when Sofia starts out she’s in a buttoned-up suit with a higher neckline, hiding her scars. But as the season continues, she begins to wear more revealing outfits, where you can see her scars.
The panel ended with a midseason trailer that looks downright apocalyptic as various parts of Gotham exploded, and the noose tightened on both Oz and Sofia. “We’re taking back Gotham!” yells Oz, as the trailer ends. You can watch it, below:
The Penguin airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO, and streams simultaneously on Max.
Where To Watch The Penguin:
The Penguin Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first episode of The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19 at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max. There will be an encore airing on Sunday, September 22 at 9 pm ET, and then the show will move to its regular time slot of Sundays at 9 pm ET starting on September 29.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Penguin, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, September 19, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 1: “After Hours”
- Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 2: “Inside Man”
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 3: “Bliss”
- Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 4: “Cent’Anni”
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 5: “Homecoming”
- Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 6: “Gold Summit”
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 7: “Top Hat”
- Sunday, November 10, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 8: “Great or Little Thing”
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