The Penguin wrapped up yesterday evening with a must-see finale that ended with a shot of the Bat-Signal shining in the distance. It was a great tease for The Batman Part II, making it clear that the Dark Knight will eventually cross paths with Oz Cobb again.
In the series, Batman's absence was occasionally pretty distracting and, talking to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Matt Reeves confirmed there were at least discussions about a cameo.
"Over the course of writing the season, we discussed many times whether or not there might be some cross-through that would feel earned," the filmmaker explains. "We tried a few different ideas conceptually, nothing that was ever written ultimately, but nothing seemed to quite gel in a way that felt earned."
Among the ideas considered was a scene with Batman showing up in front of Vic, Oz's right-hand man. "But even that ended up throwing things off too much," Reeves admits. Showrunner Lauren LeFranc adds, "We wanted our characters to be the predominant people that you're following in this show. Anything that started to detract from that wasn't servicing the type of show we wanted to do."
While the Bat-Signal is as close as The Penguin gets to teasing Batman, LeFranc confirms it's there "to launch into Matt's second film. I very much liked the idea of the Batman undercutting the strange, delusional scenario that Oz created for himself at the end, to merit all of his previous actions and to say, 'I finally made it.' And then for us to say, 'Maybe not. Maybe you haven't.'"
Reeves elaborates on that point by saying, "We're kind of flicking you at the end to say the story's not over. The idea that Oz and these characters could be on a collision course at some point with Batman, that's of course out there. So we wanted to leave you with a sense of that without overshadowing that this is really the completion of the story."
The Penguin has been a critical and ratings hit for HBO, surely meaning the cable network will want to tell another story about Oz. While recent reports about a show revolving around Barry Keoghan's Joker have been debunked, Reeves admits "there's an urgency" from HBO about his plans for this saga and confirmed season 2 isn't off the table.
"We are, in a very preliminary way — me, Lauren, [Reeves' producing partner] Dylan [Clark], and Colin — starting to talk about what would be the way," the director teases. "For me, what's really important is that we earn it. The idea of revisiting means that we have to keep that same bar. I know that none of us wants to go back and just do more. We want to go back and do something great."
As for what all this means for The Batman Part II, he notes, "We're leaving Oz and [Gotham] in a state where the city is still trying to heal itself from what happened. It's also a time, as you see [with] what goes on with Vic and Crown Point, where the city's deeply wounded. As we're entering the movie, all of that stuff is still broiling."
"The repercussions of what happened as a result of the last movie and what's happened during this gang war are very much the table setter for the way we enter into [The Batman Part II]."
That movie doesn't arrive in theaters until October 2, 2026, so we have a long time to wait before seeing where this story goes next. The Batman Part II had been set for an October 2025 release, of course, but was pushed back due to last year's strikes.
Would you be down for a second season of The Penguin?