John Turturro played mobster Carmine Falcone in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but he declined to reprise the role for The Penguin series. He told Variety that he had done “what I wanted with the role” and that the show included “a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.“
Although the character is rather brutal in The Batman, Turturro said much of it “happens off screen” and “it’s scarier that way.” The actor added that another reason why he didn’t return was not enough time in his schedule. “You can’t do everything you want to,” he said. Despite the death of Carmine Falcone in The Batman, the mobster does appear in The Penguin, with Mark Strong now playing the role in flashbacks.
Taking place after the events of The Batman, The Penguin finds Oz Cobb taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the death of Carmine Falcone. In addition to Colin Farrell, the series stars Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, daughter of the late Carmine, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Oz’s driver, Michael Kelly as Johnny Vity, Falcone family underboss, and Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, a rival gangster. Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O’Connell, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Michael Zegen, Carmen Ejogo, and Theo Rossi also star in the series.
The Penguin was originally developed by Max but later moved to HBO alongside several other shows that were initially announced for Max. The series has been receiving rave reviews, including from our own Alex Maidy, who called it a “masterpiece that will be the defining performance of Colin Farrell’s career.” Maidy added, “The Penguin easily becomes the best DC or Marvel television series to date, with the bar being raised substantially… Not a single moment in these eight episodes feels wasted or padded, which is surprising since every episode comes close to a full hour, with the premiere and finale going longer than sixty minutes. The Penguin is a sprawling character study of a villain’s rise that echoes Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne’s transformation to become the Dark Knight.” You can check out his review right here.
I haven’t had the chance to check out The Penguin yet (I know, I know), so I’ll leave it to you: Does Mark Strong do a good job as the recast Carmine Falcone, or do you wish John Turturro had returned?
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