HBO’s The Penguin picks up right where the 2022 Matt Reeves film The Batman ended. As Gotham city is grappling with the flood caused by the Riddler and the underworld is dealing with the aftermath of Carmine Falcone's death, The Penguin follows the rise of Oz Cobb aka the Penguin in the dark underbelly of Gotham.
The Penguin consists of eight episodes and is arguably one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. With great performances from Cristin Milioti and Colin Farrell as Sophia Falcone and Oz Cobb, the show's ending features a set up that could play a role in the highly anticipated Batman sequel, The Batman - Part II.
Reeves had already confirmed at the San Diego Comic-Con panel of The Penguin that Oz Cobb will be returning in The Batman sequel. Let us now explore in detail how the ending of The Penguin sets up the sequel.
How is Selena Kyle related to Sofia Falcone in The Penguin?
It was already revealed in The Batman that Selena Kyle was Carmine Falcone’s daughter, which makes her Sofia’s half-sister. While The Penguin majorly deals with Oz Cobb’s rise in the Gotham underworld, a good part of the series also focuses on Sofia Falcone and her attempts to reclaim power over Gotham city.
Having to battle with her history of previously being a resident of Arkham Asylum, Sofia tries her best to get a strong foothold in Gotham’s criminal underworld, but fails to do so. As the series shows, she ends up at Arkham State Hospital again, where The Joker and The Riddler also reside.
However, what is interesting is that while being held in Arkham, Sofia receives a letter from Selena, who claims to be her sister. While it is true that they are half-sisters, Sofia does not know that.
The ending of The Batman had shown Zoe Kravitz’s character Selena Kyle leaving Gotham. While it is not clear whether she will be returning in The Batman sequel, the ending of The Penguin seems to be setting up a possible alliance between Sofia and Selena, who have been two extremely powerful female characters in the Batman universe in the comic books.
What happened to Sofia Falcone at the end of The Penguin?
Sofia’s ending in The Penguin comes off as unhappy, yet bittersweet. After she detonates a car bomb to destroy Cobb’s underground drug lab, which causes massive destruction across the city, Sofia plans to leave Gotham for good and ditch her family’s criminal activities in the underworld.
However, though she gets a chance to take Oz out for one last time, she finds herself double crossed, leading to Oz getting his own much-awaited chance for revenge. As Oz tells her that she would be going to hell, Sofia tells him that she will keep a seat for him there and seems to be completely ready to take a bullet.
At this point, the cops show up and she gets back in Arkham Asylum. Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia, said that getting back at Arkham is
“a fate worse than death. He found the one thing that was actually the worst thing possible for her.”
However, it’s not all over for Sofia as she receives a letter from a certain Selena while being locked up and though the contents of the letter remain hidden, it does put a smile on Sofia’s face, thus hinting that it’s not quite all over for her, just yet.
Talking about that scene, Milioti said,
“It’s like a glimmer of hope. And selfishly, I would love to see them team up and wreak havoc, obviously. Just absolutely decked out to the nines, kicking ass and taking names.”
These comments by her, combined with the storyline that The Penguin finale set up hints at the immense possibility of Sofia potentially making an appearance in The Batman sequel.
What major teaser confirmed The Penguin's involvement in The Batman's upcoming sequel?
While it was clearly mentioned from the beginning that The Penguin will not be featuring Robert Pattinson’s Batman in any capacity, the ending of the show features quite an incredible and strong tease about Batman.
Talking about how The Penguin leads into The Batman sequel, Matt Reeves said,
"The idea was to pull that out and to find a way to tell that story and have it begin a week after the movie. Then tell the beginning of him beginning this journey toward becoming the kingpin. Then ending that story as it related to where we wanted to tell what was going to be the main story for The Batman Part II, which Mattson and I are now writing."
By the end of The Penguin, Oz is seen to finally be living the way he had always wanted to. However, right at the ending, we see that there is a shot of Oz’s penthouse and a real quick flash of the Bat-signal, and we all know what that means. This scene sets up the likely reunion between Batman and Penguin, that fans are expecting to see in the sequel.
The ending also hints at the possibility of Batman investigating all the happenings in Gotham City and eventually coming to know of Penguin’s rise to power. This also makes way for the face off between the two, a scenario that the sequel might create for an epic showdown.
As The Penguin ends with Oz Cobb finally becoming Gotham’s crime boss, it is very likely that he will play a pivotal role in The Batman sequel. His appearance in the sequel is already confirmed and though there is no official update on who the main villain would be, the way this spin off series has developed his character, it will not be surprising to see if the Penguin actually ends up becoming the main villain that Batman has to deal with in Reeves’ next film.
Just in case you haven't watched The Penguin yet, the show can be streamed on Max.
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