THE PENGUIN Director Craig Zobel Breaks Down Big Character Death And Teases What's To Come In Episode 2

THE PENGUIN Director Craig Zobel Breaks Down Big Character Death And Teases What's To Come In Episode 2

The Penguin director and executive producer Craig Zobel has addressed the decision to kill a noteworthy character from the comic books in the season premiere and teases what's to come next Sunday...

By JoshWilding - Sep 20, 2024 10:09 AM EST
Filed Under: The Batman
Source: Screen Rant

In the comic books, Alberto Falcone is revealed to be the Holiday Killer in the pages of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's classic Batman: The Long Halloween.

However, The Penguin sees Oz Cobb gun Carmine Falcone's son down about 15 minutes into the premiere! The door is now presumably closed on that iconic storyline being adapted by Matt Reeves, but according to director and executive producer Craig Zobel, Alberto's death was always the plan.

"It was always the plan for Alberto to die," he told Screen Rant. "It was an addition, I would say, to Colin's Penguin. With Oz in the movie, you don't see this as much just because there's not as much time, but here we get to see him in a [new] scenario."

"In my mind, the thing that's interesting is that Oz is a guy who, in order to try to win people over and do things, puts his foot in his mouth a lot. Some part of his brain makes a rash decision that pushes him into action."

"That can mean a lot of things, but in this case, the thing that pushes him into action is that he makes a terrible decision of maybe shooting the head of the crime family and then is like, 'Now I have to solve this. Now I've got a problem to solve.'"

Zobel added, "But what is fun about the show and what's attractive is that you like to see him make a mistake, and then you'd like to see him problem-solve his way out of the mistake. Both are kind of charming in a way. Considering he is a narcissist and a bad human, you still want enough charm to stick with the character and watch him for eight hours."

Alberto's death is likely to be Oz's first move in taking over Carmine's criminal empire and there's still a chance for Reeves to revisit the Holiday Killer concept in The Batman - Part II

While Alberto admits to being Holiday on the page, readers of The Long Halloween are also given reason to believe that Two-Face or Gilda Dent were responsible for some, if not all, of the murders. Based on what we've seen so far, though, Reeves plans to tell largely original stories. 

Elsewhere in the interview, Zobel teased what fans can expect from The Penguin's second episode. 

"In episode 2, Oz continues to sort of be burdened by the bad choice he made at the beginning of episode 1. He's still in a situation where that is very tenuous, and he is trying to cover his tracks and figure out really what the next step is going to be."

"At the same time, although we've met Sofia Falcon, the real introduction to her in terms of [where] we get to know a lot more about her and how she fits into the Falcone family and what her point of view is."

Read our recap of The Penguin's season premiere by clicking here.

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Malatrova15
Malatrova15 - 9/20/2024, 10:37 AM
El pingu
tmp3
tmp3 - 9/20/2024, 10:37 AM
This pilot was straight up great TV. Shocked at just how strong the whole thing was. Reeves feels like the only guy COOKIN in the genre rn
Camper
Camper - 9/20/2024, 10:44 AM
@tmp3 - I agree. I was literally shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I went in not expecting much and when it was over, I went, damn! That was awesome!
CaptainTriip
CaptainTriip - 9/20/2024, 10:51 AM
@tmp3 - Same! So good. Genuinely fun and entertaining watch. Felt like the comics were in its DNA but also some Burton/Devito there too. Stoked to have a show to look forward to again!
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 9/21/2024, 7:32 AM
@tmp3 - Might be a premature to say, but this feels like the best we’ve gotten since Watchmen, and while it’s not that good, it’s closer to that level of quality than the rest over the last 5 years.

Can definitely tell why HBO wanted the show for themselves.
dracula
dracula - 9/20/2024, 10:52 AM
That was great
DocSpock
DocSpock - 9/20/2024, 11:35 AM

The show was pretty good. Will end with Batman showing up. It has to.
TheJester187
TheJester187 - 9/20/2024, 12:09 PM
Gotham Skyline looked amazing and the show is amazing just off the 1st episode! Can’t wait until October 6th 2026!
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 9/20/2024, 2:20 PM
You can tell they only read the wikipedia entries for The Long Halloween and Dark Victory rather than actually reading the comics.

That was not Alberto Falcone at all. It was not Sofia Falcone. And it wasn't Johnny Viti either. Like at all. They're just using names from the books, but not adapting the characters.
At least Sofia was the hangman, but I get the feeling that they only actually know the character from Gotham. If they were just adapting Gotham then they did a good job. Cristin Milioti is actually great in the role.
Oswald seems adapted from Gotham too. And really a lot of The Batman seemed inspired by those versions of the characters. They even had the Riddler singing Ava Maria in Arkham like in Gotham.
Pampero
Pampero - 9/20/2024, 4:11 PM
It was awesome. More Oz please
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 9/20/2024, 4:17 PM
very much loved this first episode. im sucked in and cant wait to watch more
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 9/21/2024, 5:49 PM
Loved it!

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