The Penguin sits an incredible 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the best-reviewed DC Comics adaptations ever. Unsurprisingly, those positive reviews have led to massive viewership for The Batman spin-off/sequel.
According to HBO, the show debuted with 5.3 million U.S. viewings across all platforms following its September 19 debut. For clarity, that includes repeat airings on HBO along with streaming viewership numbers from Max.
This puts The Penguin above the final season premiere of Succession (4.9 million viewers) and The White Lotus' season 2 premiere (4.1 million), two of HBO's biggest hits. Impressively, it's a mere 400,000 viewers behind True Detective: Night Country's debut.
We've also confirmed that this is Max's biggest 4-day audience for a new series since The Last of Us in January 2023.
With numbers like these, you'd best believe HBO is already mulling over a second season. It's unlikely that will fit into Matt Reeves' plans for "The Batman Epic Crime Saga" as he's said The Penguin leads directly into The Batman - Part II. However, we'd imagine more spin-offs will soon follow and that HBO is now more confident than ever in its decision to also bring Lanterns to the cable network.
During a recent interview with Collider, The Penguin director Craig Zobel was asked about the premiere's memorable "9 to 5" needle drop.
"That was a Lauren [LeFranc] thing. In the screenplay it had...when he picks up the car, we knew that there was going to be some slightly embarrassing song, or incongruous song playing when he got in the car," he explained. "We knew that Victor was going to have to acknowledge that slightly, which I think he does so brilliantly. It's one of my favorite little beats in the episode."
"What the song was was up for debate for a good bit. Colin had ideas, I had ideas, and Lauren had ideas, and we tried a bunch of different things, a bunch of different universes of things. But then, Lauren was the one that was like, 'I've got it.'"
Stay tuned for updates on The Penguin.
The Penguin's cast includes Colin Farrell (Oz Cobblepot), 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), and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush).
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. Daniel Pipski also serves as executive producer.
The Penguin premieres on HBO and Max on September 19.