Here's How THE PENGUIN Finale Sets Up THE BATMAN PART II (And Whether The Dark Knight Shows Up) - SPOILERS

Here's How THE PENGUIN Finale Sets Up THE BATMAN PART II (And Whether The Dark Knight Shows Up) - SPOILERS

We've already recapped The Penguin season finale and shared comments from the cast and crew, but we're now taking a deep dive into how the episode sets the stage for The Batman Part II. Check it out...

Feature Opinion
By JoshWilding - Nov 11, 2024 02:11 PM EST
Filed Under: The Batman

The season finale of The Penguin hit HBO yesterday evening and it was nothing short of devastating. Despite the shocking final fate of some characters, the series delivered a satisfying conclusion to this story, with Oz Cobb now Gotham City's new Kingpin of Crime. 

His evolution is one we expect to see continue in The Batman Part II as filmmaker Matt Reeves' "The Batman Epic Crime Saga" unfurls. We broke down all the biggest moments in "A Great or Little Thing" here but it's now time to explore exactly how the finale lays the groundwork for that long-awaited sequel. 

From potential team-ups to Oz's new status quo and the Batman of it all, The Penguin is essential viewing to follow where this story goes next. 

Check out our analysis of those moments, along with a few more comments from the cast, below. 
 

Selina Kyle's Letter

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Outsmarted by Oz and returned to Arkham when her involvement with the Crown Point disaster is revealed (also courtesy of Oz), things look bleak for Sofia Gigante as the finale comes to an end. 

However, Dr. Julian Rush offers up some hope when he brings a letter from a woman claiming to be her half-sister: Selina Kyle. The Batman concluded with Catwoman leaving Gotham, but this might just be enough to bring her back home and give Sofia a role in The Batman Part II

"I mean, it's my wildest hope that I get to revisit her, because I've loved this role so immensely," Cristin Milioti recently told The Direct. "I think if [Sofia and Selina Kyle] were united, we would just really tear shit up. I don't know how to say it... We would just like, burn it down. You know what I mean? In a fun way. I think we'd have a lot of fun."

We don't expect Selina to break her sister out of Arkham, but this leaves the door open to the daughters of Carmine Falcone eventually doing something to help bring down The Penguin.
 

Oz Cobb Wins

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Having finally dealt with Sofia, Oz convinces his fellow lackeys to murder their bosses and take control of Gotham City alongside him. However, he also manages to find some legitimacy after forging an alliance with Councilman Hady. 

The politician warns Oz that mayor-elect Bella Reál is cracking down on corruption and that he needs to make himself appear clean. This suggests that, heading into The Batman Part II, he'll have created the facade of an "honest" businessman who can no longer be bullied or threatened by a vigilante like Batman or even Lieutenant Jim Gordon. 

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Colin Farrell said, "[Oz's personality] was forming and changing in the limited series, and, by the end of the eight episodes, it’s concretized into something else. There is a degree of almost delusion psychopathy present in the last scene. So how is that taken up in the second film? I was told I have five or six scenes."

This points to him not having an extended role in The Batman Part II and, like the first film, means he'll be on the periphery instead. Farrell has confirmed he's signed up for a third movie, though, so may be that chapter's big bad. 
 

The Bat-Signal

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Oz finally has the power he always craved but his mother is in a vegetative state and he's paying a prostitute, Eve, to dress as Francis and tell him how proud she is of his rise to power. Oh, and he killed one of his most trusted allies when he strangled poor Vic to death in cold blood. 

Even when Oz wins, he loses, and a hint at what's to come plays out when the camera pans outside to reveal that the Bat-Signal has been lit. That doesn't mean Jim Gordon is calling on the Caped Crusader to help deal with The Penguin, of course, and instead suggests there's another major threat requiring the vigilante's help.

"I would have hated the show to finish and end up with the final credits and Batman not be addressed at all," Farrell admitted when he caught up with Collider. "And it's right down to the wire, but when that signal came up, I mean, it's so iconic, and it's so exciting for me and the inner kid that lives inside this 48-year-old body. I just thought, 'Oh, shit, there's a reckoning coming. There's another storm coming.'"

The Dark Knight's absence throughout The Penguin was undeniably distracting, but at least we know the stage is being set for Batman to make sure Oz pays for his crimes...eventually!
 

Where Is Batman, Anyway?

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There are likely any number of reasons for Robert Pattinson's absence from The Penguin. The actor may not have wanted to appear in a TV series or HBO/Max might have been unwilling to pay the actor what he required to make the leap to the small screen.

For what it's worth, the show's creatives have insisted it was never the plan for Batman to show up. With so much going on in Gotham City during this story - including the destruction of Crown Point - The Batman Part II will need to explain the vigilante's absence. 

Farrell has some thoughts on that, telling Collider, "Batman himself, the way I remember it at the end of the film, he’s having a moment of existential shift in regards to what he feels his purpose is and how he’s going to go forth, as a dispirited sense of right in a city that needs an extraordinary amount of help to fix the moral wrongs of what is constantly at play."

It's as good an explanation as any. We're sure Batman and Gordon will also deliver some exposition for moviegoers by reflecting on the fall of the Falcone's and Oz's rise through the ranks, particularly as they have a shared history with the villain.
 

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Scarilian
Scarilian - 11/11/2024, 2:13 PM
"Batman himself, the way I remember it at the end of the film, he’s having a moment of existential shift in regards to what he feels his purpose is and how he’s going to go forth, as a dispirited sense of right in a city that needs an extraordinary amount of help to fix the moral wrongs of what is constantly at play."

Not really... he'd been shown he could do more to help people by coming out of the shadows and going down to street level in-person helping civilians.

There was no existential shift, people called him out for being dumb trying to play 'Batman' and that he could help more as Bruce Wayne.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 11/11/2024, 2:15 PM
People need to remember that The Batman was a 'deconstruction' film, taking apart what Batman is, it's not magically going to become a Batman film. If anything his disappearance is going to be because he's chosen to do more as Bruce Wayne and is forced to do the Batman mantle when a new threat emerges.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 11/11/2024, 2:29 PM
@Scarilian - there's really no good reason for Batman to not be involved with the events of Penguin especially post bomb taking out a few blocks of Gotham, unless that reason is "man I kinda suck at fighting and am honestly a pretty awful detective and I should really take a year off and go train hardcore with a cult of ninjas or something".
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 11/11/2024, 4:55 PM
@McMurdo - he needed a Bat Break
Malatrova15
Malatrova15 - 11/11/2024, 2:14 PM
Thats the cool part....it doesnt.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 11/11/2024, 2:27 PM
Coulda just wrote "Batsignal, and he doesn't".
Nomis929
Nomis929 - 11/11/2024, 2:28 PM
They really set it up to have a classic showdown Between Batman and Penguin !
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 11/11/2024, 2:30 PM
@Nomis929 - I was very skeptical about the idea of Penguin being the main (and potentially) only villain of the sequel, those doubts are now gone. Although I still believe there'll be someone else with him, such as Hush or the Owls, I have no doubt he'll be the main focus in part II.
CerealKiller1
CerealKiller1 - 11/11/2024, 2:38 PM
@TheJok3r - Colin Farrell has already said he’s only in about five scenes in Part 2
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 11/11/2024, 2:42 PM
@CerealKiller1 - That's close to Riddler's in the first movie. He doesn't need too many scenes to be a major presence in the story.
Nomis929
Nomis929 - 11/11/2024, 2:54 PM
@TheJok3r - Yeah,I think The Penguin is going to be controlling things behind the scenes using the corruption of Gotham politics.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 11/11/2024, 5:29 PM
@Nomis929 - Mayor Cobb.
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 11/11/2024, 2:29 PM
I can't wait to see Batman put this creep in his place. Out of all the people Batman beat up, this guy by far deserves it the most.
McMurdo
McMurdo - 11/11/2024, 2:30 PM
@TheJok3r - hopefully he does so with a bit more care for the innocent civilians of Gotham. Last time he drove head on down the wrong lanes of the highway and arguably caused the death of a handful of innocent individuals in the process.
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 11/11/2024, 2:34 PM
@McMurdo - I don't know how it'll happen, but I can tell you for a fact that Penguin's death will be extremely slow and painful. This show did not just build up his rise to power, it also built up to a massive fall as a price for all the hard he caused. I also think there's a very high chance that Sofia and Selina are the ones who kill him after Batman refuses to.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 11/11/2024, 2:32 PM
Still haven't seen it yet but going by article about the 'Scrapped plans' for Batman to appear, I'm guessing he doesn't.

I'm also pretty sure that both Penguin and Sofia survive and that Victor is betrayed by Oz and dies or something. And that there's another major Bat villain setting up the sequel.
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 11/11/2024, 3:22 PM
What I really liked about this show is that it set Penguin up as a true, serious villain that needs to be taken care of. He's not just some side character Batman will push aside on his way to Joker in Part III. This a guy will did, and will do major damage to city.
Humperdoo
Humperdoo - 11/11/2024, 3:43 PM
I hate having to watch a show to know what’s going on in a movie. Fortunately, I have little interest in seeing The Batman 2 because of how mind numbingly boring The Batman movie is.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/11/2024, 4:06 PM
@Humperdoo - I'm one of those guys with you.
I thought the Batman film was just "eh." Nothing that hadn't been done before in any medium.

And making the Riddler look like that?! WTF was the idea behind his idiot costume?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/11/2024, 4:00 PM
So.
Number 1: How does the show pass the baton to "The Batman II?"

Number 2: I know there's rumors about a a JOKER series (which Matt Reeves has denied it and I also don't believe it'll happen), but wouldn't it be better off if the series debuted sometime mid-to-late 2025 because the next film isn't until 2026?
I mean, Penguin ended yesterday in November. If there's nothing until Part II, wouldn't it be easier for the general audience to forget the Reeve's world?

Thanks for the answers and time....
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 11/11/2024, 4:54 PM
Honestly, the series was better than I thought it’d be but still nothing I’d tell people is a must watch… and yes i prefer most of the Marvel D+ series over the Penguin. I’d also rate the Flash CW series way above the Penguin.

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