How The Penguin Series Sets Up The Batman 2

This article contains spoilers for “The Penguin.”

Throughout the eight-episode run of the HBO limited series “The Penguin” (read /Film’s review), the mobster Oswald Cobb (as portrayed by Oscar-nominated actor Colin Farrell) has been clawing his way to the top of a power vacuum left behind by the death of his old boss Carmine Falcone during the 2022 film “The Batman.” Oz, as he’s known, isn’t the only one trying to take charge in “The Penguin,” with Carmine’s daughter Sofia (Cristin Milioti) plotting to take Oz down for the murder of her brother in addition to scheming to introduce the citizens of Gotham to a powerful new street drug inspired by her years-long lockup in Arkham Asylum. But now that “The Penguin” has ended, we have to look to 2026 for “The Batman Part II” to see how the Caped Crusader will handle a redesigned Mafia. And all we can do now is think about how “The Penguin” concluded and what that may mean for the next chapter in Bruce Wayne’s saga.

It should come as no surprise (even to outside observers) that Oz makes it out alive of the show, bearing the nasty nickname he landed for his scarred face and gait due to a physical disability. Although Sofia isn’t a new character created for this series, she’s not remotely as well-known inside and outside of the DC Comics universe as the Penguin is, even if Farrell’s version is much grimmer and more grounded than previous iterations. But if we began “The Penguin” with even a shred of sympathy for Oz — who sometimes seems to cut a figure like that of the pathetic Fredo in “The Godfather” trilogy — it’s absent by the final image of the series, with Oz dancing in his new penthouse apartment while, outside, an all-too-familiar Bat-Signal shines in the night sky.

Much of the “Penguin” finale seems to be as much about guaranteeing that Farrell will appear in “The Batman Part II” as it is confirming who will not be there for the new film. In a season full of violence and death, the most shocking of all comes with the brutal strangulation that Oz enacts on his closest ally, Victor (Rhenzy Feliz). After all their desperate wheeling and dealing, all the machinations to ensure that Oz could control the drug trade by stealing Bliss out from Sofia and her enemy-turned-ally Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), as soon as Oz hits the apex, he has a tender heart-to-heart with Victor that wraps up with him choking the life out of the young man via headlock, suggesting that having true family ties, any serious emotional connection, will only serve as an albatross around his neck. This is as much an inverse of the Batman-and-Robin dynamic as possible; Oz is going it alone and is more than willing to sacrifice close relationships along the way.

As surprising as it is that Victor is offed at Oz’s hands, it’s equally shocking to learn that Sofia does make it out of “The Penguin” alive, although she’s living her own nightmare once more, locked up in Arkham Asylum for who knows how long. Before, her father Carmine sent her to Arkham Asylum by giving the police false evidence that she was the mysterious Hangman serial killer, murdering young woman viciously. (In reality, as we know from the 2022 film, Carmine was the killer.) This time, though, Sofia is being sent to Arkham for a crime she did commit: setting off a massive bomb in the Crown Point neighborhood in the penultimate episode, destroying countless lives in the hopes of killing Oz. Sofia (and the audience) are under the expectation that when Oz drives her out to a secluded spot near the harbor, he’s about to shoot her in the back of the head. In reality, he’s called the authorities with the help of a dirty councilman, and Sofia has managed to live another day. And although we don’t know yet if Milioti will show up in the big screen follow-up, she’s got one surprising connection that would have been easy to ignore over the course of the series: her half-sister Selina Kyle, who writes an off-screen letter to Sofia. Although we don’t see the contents of that letter, Sofia looks awfully pleased to read it in her cell.

Aside from potentially bridging the gap between one of the heroes of “The Batman” and one of this series’ more complex villains (and don’t forget that Arkham is currently home to the Riddler as well as his cell-mate buddy played by Barry Keoghan, likely the next iteration of the Joker), “The Penguin” has that intriguing tease at the very end with the Bat-Signal. Although some folks may be disappointed that Robert Pattinson doesn’t make a cameo appearance in the show — neither does Zoe Kravitz — it is at least made clear that the Batman is still kicking around Gotham. We know from the outset of the first “Batman” movie that he was hyper-focused on taking down drug dealers when they were passing on Drops to addicts around the big city, so it seems extremely likely that he’ll be on the lookout for the arrival of Bliss now that it’s taken over his home turf.

When the Batman does run up against the Penguin once more, he may have to accept that the mid-level stooge he attacked in the first film’s excellent nighttime car-chase sequence has changed himself a bit. Perhaps the biggest way that “The Penguin” sets up the incoming “Batman” sequel is that finally, Oz Cobb looks the part that we all have in our minds. Though he may not be dancing around with an umbrella in the final moments, he’s got his tuxedo and tails, he’s got himself a swanky penthouse, and he seems to be finally in control. Neither the Maroni family nor the Falcones, both of whom are so recognizable to worldwide audiences and both of whom have caused the Batman so much trouble over the years, are a presence anymore. (Let’s not wonder why it is that the Batman stayed so far out of a massive gang war that took place over the course of this show.) Now that the Batman has his Bat-Signal working again, he and Jim Gordon (another no-show in this series) are not just going to face off against the tough talk of Oz, but also the amassed groups across Gotham City that he’s brought into the fold.

And as the final scenes of “The Penguin” make clear, Oz’s ruthlessness has become even more shocking. The Batman may not know it, but by now, we’re aware that a young Oz Cobb is responsible for the deaths of his two brothers, an act that he only ever seems slightly guilty about having committed. And aside from killing his protege Victor, Oz has also brought his senile mother Francis home, less as a victory march and more as an act of force. By the series’ end, Francis is revealed to have known what Oz did, to have loathed him for it, and to have failed to get him killed by a local Mafioso. In return, as much as Oz is heartbroken that his mother has suffered such a massive stroke that she’s essentially a vegetable, he makes her stay in her bed in an otherwise deserted and spacious room overlooking the city.

Because the Batman and his allies don’t make any appearances in “The Penguin,” and references to the 2022 film are mostly few and far between, there’s a lot of guesswork about how much of “The Penguin” will make itself known in the 2026 follow-up. What is clear is this: Oz Cobb was a fascinating side character in the 2022 film, notable as much for the remarkable makeup that masked the movie-star good looks of Colin Farrell as for the presence of the Penguin in a larger Mob epic. But now, Oz Cobb is the man in charge, and that means that the Batman is inevitably going to have face off with him and his new lackeys. The Penguin may not have the icky flash or intelligence of the Riddler, but he’s that rare villain who not only says he’s willing to take anyone down to have power; he’s proven over this eight-episode miniseries exactly who he’s willing to kill to get what he wants. The Batman needs to watch out.

“The Penguin” is now streaming in its entirety on Max.