WARNING: This interview includes spoilers from The Penguin episode 2.The Penguinepisode 2 director Craig Zobel goes inside the events of “Inside Man” of the DC TV show. The world of Matt Reeves’The Batmanuniverse continues to grow withThe PenguinTV show, with Colin Farrell taking his character Oz Cobb to new territories. Following the series premiere, The Penguin deals further with the fallout ofThe Batmanending and the next era of Gotham City.
InThe Penguinepisode 2, “Inside Man,” the viewers learn to go beneath the surface of Sofia Falcone’s past with Arkham Asylum while now having to tread within her family. Oz also continues to take Victor Aguilar further down the underworld while trying to pull the strings between the Falcone and Maroni families. As Oz and Sofia begin to grow closer,The Batmanspinoff sees the iconic villain growing more powerful in Reeves' universe.
The Penguin Show Cast & DC Character Guide
Set to release in 2024, The Penguin will continue to flesh out Matt Reeves' Gotham with Colin Farrell set to reprise his role as Oz Cobb.
Returning for another interview,Screen Rantchatted with Zobel followingThe Penguinepisode 2 ending. The executive producer on the series, directed the first and second installments ofThe Penguin, expanded on the deeper mythology getting further fleshed out for Sofia during her time at Arkham Asylum and how she is finding herself within her family, while Oz continues to pull the strings. Zobel also teases how Victor’s trajectory will be addressed in future episodes ofThe Penguin.
Director & EP Craig Zobel Addresses 1 Hilarious Critique Of The Penguin
‘The guy says that Cobblepot’s a silly name when his name is Zobel!’
Screen Rant: Since the premiere, have you checked out what people are seeing about the show? Have you been keeping up with the feedback?
Craig Zobel: It’s been really exciting. It’s cool. It’s nice to see that people are having fun with it and taking it in the spirit. We made it, so it’s been awesome. I got interviewed right before the show dropped and somebody asked about the name Oz Cobb versus the name Oz Cobblepot, and I was, at the time, I was just trying to be a good teammate. I thought it was fine because he had changed the name of The Riddler and we’re kind of an Elseworlds universe.
It didn’t really bump for me, but it clearly bumped for so many people that I, at first, was a little worried to read when you asked me if I read the reactions, because I might have as well have just held up a sign when I was trying to talk about it that said ‘Roast me!’ [laughs] because people being funny, going ‘The guy says that Cobblepot’s a silly name when his name is Zobel!’ I thought that was great, that was my favorite! [laughs]
Expanding The Arkham Asylum Of Matt Reeves' The Batman Universe In The Penguin
First of all, I love the opening where we get a taste of what Sofia went through at Arkham because this is now the second time we actually get a little more of Arkham Asylum in this universe. Having worked on the show, what is different about this version of Arkham that we haven’t seen before based on Sofia’s PTSD episode, because some really bad stuff must have gone down there, so what can you speak on that factor?
Craig Zobel: We’ll see a lot more of Arkham later in the series, which is exciting and I just got to do a little taste of it, which was fun. [It] was actually Kalina Ivanoff, our production designer, [who] painstakingly recreated the same interview area that is in Matt Reeve’s movie where Batman goes and talks to the Riddler once he’s already been put in jail. So it was fun to do that, I think you’re going to learn why she’s in there, and what happens to her in there is maybe not what everybody seems to think so much.
I don’t know how much you could speak about this, but was there ever a conversation about potentially planting some seeds intoThe Penguinfor theArkhamspinoff? Was there any type of discussion about maybe using Sofia’s point of view to plan a foundation for expanding that [side of this] world?
Craig Zobel: To a degree. I think that by the time we were making this, the other Arkham project was going in a different direction and had different elements to it. So we weren’t beholden to anything, I should say. We didn’t need to set anything up. I happened to know Antonio Campos, who was doing that, so we kind interacted a little bit, but that wasn’t really the goal of anything with The Penguin, and it’s really just [that] we’re in Arkham to be with Sofia, really more than we’re in Arkham to be telling a story about Arkham so much.
Were there maybe any other psychopath criminals that may have been released with Sofia while from Arkham that we should be kind of worried about?
Craig Zobel: I don’t know. I literally, I can’t tell you, not because I’m trying to hide something, it’s literally [because] I don’t know.
The Penguin’s Distinction Between The Falcones And The Maronis
“The story of the Falcones is a story of a bunch of old men…”
We see a lot more of the family dynamics between the Falcones and the Maronis. There’s been a lot of comparison betweenThe PenguinandThe Sopranos, of course, but what is your viewpoint on how you guys are exploring that in the show in terms of the various different dynamics? Because it feels like the Maronis are way closer to each other and the Falcones are every man from themselves out there.
Craig Zobel: An awesome thing that Lauren did with the idea of Sal Maroni [was that] Sal had partly a Persian family, which is a thing specific to our version of our telling of the story that I thought was super fun. Partly I got to work with the incredible Shohreh Aghdashloo, she was so great. Because he’s behind bars, she’s sort of running things, and she has their family tighter knit, and they really do operate as a family.
I think that’s important in a general sense because the story of the Falcones is a story of a bunch of old men, who are underestimating Sofia and they’re backstabbing each other, but it’s clear that Sofia should be in charge. She seems, in some ways, like the smartest of all of them, [yet] they’re patronizing [her] and not giving her due that way.
I’m Persian myself, so for me, I love Shohreh, I’ve watched her in so many things. In a lot of Batman media, we’ve never seen Persian representation in this kind of way. Where did the idea come from when working with Lauren and Matt about it? Were they always going the Persians, or were you keeping it open for Middle-Eastern culture in general?
Craig Zobel: No, we chased it. It was an idea that Lauren and I believe the writers' room, had really pursued this idea. As soon as I started, that was kind of a desire. I immediately was like, ‘Oh man, well, there’s one woman who can do this!’ [laughs] and she had actually worked on something with Lauren before, so it was pretty easy to make that happen. But I thought it just added a richness and made the world bigger in the coolest way. I was excited to do it.
Craig Zobel Redefining Oz Cobb’s DC History In The Penguin
“This version of Oz is a mama’s boy…”
What I love aboutThe Penguinso much is you guys are adding many new elements to the mythology that we haven’t seen before. One of those things is the idea that his expanded family where he has brothers, I want to know so much about these brothers. Can you talk about changing his backstory and giving him this expanded family?
Craig Zobel: I don’t want to say too much. I feel like there’s more to learn as we watch the episodes, but yeah, this version of Oz is a mama’s boy, and it’s becoming more clear that he is a mama’s boy because his brothers aren’t there anymore. I think that’s one of the fun things that hopefully, the further in the series you’ll go, [you’ll] get to learn more about.
The Future Trajectory For Victor After The Penguin Episode 2
I want to talk about Victor’s little adventure in this episode - why was he used for the heist in terms of what does this do for him as we go forward in the series? This is really a kid having to grow up really, really quickly.
Craig Zobel: I think partly for Oz, it’s a matter of [him being] around. Ultimately, if he got caught, it probably wouldn’t blow back on Oz the same way as it could with other people. I think there’s always that cynical side to us, but it’s also who Oz has that he can trust that will do it, and he has proved himself. He did a great job getting Oz out the bind at the end of episode one. That’s been fun. I think that we get to see Victor sort of starting to realize what life in a mafia would be like. He’s starting to understand that it’s exciting at times, [but] also very dangerous at other times.
Why did Oz put Victor in the grave? Because it is interesting that Oz is still the one that still buries the bodies as a reminder of that he’s still low level.
Craig Zobel: This is a punishment that he has to go bury the bodies. So he is being put in his place and he’s kicking the dog in a way, being cruel to Victor there. I think Oz probably doesn’t realize how dramatic that is for Victor. I think he’s mostly talking to himself in that scene, sort of saying things he’s probably said before, and I don’t know that he knows what it’s doing for Victor, but I think that for Victor, it is a turning point, really, where he has to make a decision [about] what is he doing in this world.
This is a world where in the last two episodes, and in a matter of days, he’s handled a lot of dead bodies all of a sudden, and he has to decide whether or not he wants to keep moving forward and being a part of this or try to figure out if this is right for him or if there’s a way for him to get out, which we’ll see him deal with as we move forward in the series.
Craig Zobel OnThe PenguinConfirmingThe BatmanTime Period
We learned thatThe Batmanwas set in 2022 through this episode, which we didn’t know before. Was that something that was consciously carried over intoThe Penguin, or what was the discussion about finally confirming that this is the timeline that we’re running with?
Craig Zobel: I can’t really speak for Matt a hundred percent, but my impression was that Matt sort of had decided the timeline before even Lauren [LeFranc] had started crafting the story and that it was certainly supposed to be 2022. It just maybe hadn’t gotten mentioned directly in the movie, but I think it’s the gift of that movie is that it’s just a very specific world and specific look.
Craig Zobel TeasesThe PenguinEpisode 3 & Beyond
What can people look forward to inThe Penguinepisode 3?
Craig Zobel: [In episode 3,]we will get to see even more of, now that we know more about Sofia’s place in the family, we will get to see more of that come to a head and her choices will become apparent on what she needs to do. We’ll also get to see Victor really wrestle with his place in this world of the mafia and whether or not he truly fits into that.
More About The Penguin Season 1
Starring Colin Farrell as The Penguin, the eight-episode DC Studios drama series continues The Batman epic crime saga that filmmaker Matt Reeves began with Warner Bros. Pictures’ global blockbuster “The Batman,” and centers on the character played by Farrell in the film. The first look was revealed today exclusively during Warner Bros. Discovery’s unveiling of the Max streaming service on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles. The previously announced cast includes Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Deirdre O’Connell, with Clancy Brown and Michael Zegen recurring.
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 PENGUIN 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.
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The Penguinairs new episodes on Sunday at 9 PM on HBO.
The Penguin
Cast
Created by Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin is a crime-drama spin-off television series of 2022’s film The Batman. Set shortly after the events of The Batman, Oz Cobb, A.K.A. the Penguin, begins his rise in the underworld of Gotham City as he contends with the daughter of his late boss, Carmine Falcone, for control of the crime family’s empire.
