John Turturro played Carmine Falcone in The Batman and ultimately met his maker at the hands of The Riddler who gunned him down from afar.
While we'd anticipated that being where the character's story ends, he'll return in The Penguin courtesy of flashbacks. However, the gangster will be portrayed by Kingsman: The Secret Service star Mark Strong, a major casting change that's been left unexplained until now.
Talking to IGN, The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc explained it simply came down to scheduling issues. "Well, practically, John was just unavailable to us. He had scheduling conflicts, and we couldn't make it work, but honestly, I'm so thrilled that we brought Mark Strong on. I think he's really good."
"Even though, maybe in the beginning when you first meet him, you might think, "Oh. Well, for fans of The Batman, I'm so used to John Turturro," and obviously John's a great actor, but I feel like the gravitas that Mark brings, it's different," she added. "It's very specific, and I hope, by the end of that episode, you're just thinking, 'That's Carmine Falcone,' and you're engaged in what Mark brings to it."
While it was previously reported that Strong is playing a younger version of Falcone - which never made sense when Strong is only six years younger than Turturro - the first episode shows the new version in a news report, meaning this is indeed a simple recast.
In the same interview, LeFranc opened up on the decision to reveal in the first episode that Oz Cobb's signature "Penguin" walk is a result of a clubfoot.
"For me, I thought it was very important to show his clubfoot in the first episode, because in the movie you're not quite sure why he limps, and I wanted to firmly establish why and to show the level of pain that he puts himself through, but doesn't speak about it," she said. "Also, this is nothing that we've ever put on camera, but in my mind, because if you have a clubfoot, now there's a surgery you can get, and that often people do."
"And so, for my reasoning as to why he doesn't, he grew up with very little money. He didn't come from anything, and his mother didn't decide to spend the money on a surgery like that. Also, because she doesn't see it as a disability. She doesn't see it as a problem. She sees it as a way for him to strengthen himself."
LeFranc added, "Something I was conscious of are the sort of comic book tropes that have come before, of those who are other, those who have disabilities, those who have scars on their face. They're often easily depicted as the villain, and I think it's just an unfortunate thing in our comic book history, and I wanted to try to disrupt that as much as possible."
"So for me, it was important to show that Oz, psychologically, is a damaged person. Who he is inside is what informs the choices and the darker choices he makes. It's not because he has a disability. It's not based on the way that he looks. Of course, that's an aspect of his character, but that's not solely and predominantly why. So that was something that was always very important to me."
The Penguin is meant to serve as a bridge between The Batman and The Batman II, though it's now been confirmed - and this isn't a spoiler - that Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight doesn't make an appearance in the series.
Many fans have wondered whether a surprise post-credits scene will be added that critics didn't get to see; unfortunately, that doesn't really feel like Matt Reeves' style!
Check back here later this evening for our recap of The Penguin's first episode.