In this week’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast host Mike DeAngelo attempts an underworld power grab while discussing “The Penguin.” The Max series follows the events of “The Batman,” when Oz Cobb makes a play to seize the reins of the crime world in Gotham. The series stars Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Deidre O’Connell, Theo Rossi, Clancy Brown, Michael Kelly, and more. 
READ MORE: ‘The Penguin’ Review: Colin Farrell Leads A Dark, Tragic Tale About The Decay Of The American Dream
Joining Bingeworthy to discuss the series is show runner, Lauren LeFranc (“Impulse,” “Agents Of S.H.I.E.LD.,” “Chuck”). During the interview, LeFranc discussed getting the job and meeting “The Batman” director Matt Reeves for the first time.
“The best part about meeting Matt and talking to him for the first time was instantly I knew that I had a creative partner who examined characters in the same way that I do, which is from an emotional place,” LeFranc said. “It just reaffirmed for me that he wasn’t the type of person to lead with spectacle and say, ‘Oh, what’s a cool action sequence that we should do?’ He told me about Oz and let me read [‘The Batman’] script, but Oz isn’t in many scenes. And he didn’t have the time to spend with Oz as much as I think he’d like. But he’s very impactful in the movie. And it’s just a spark. When he rolls in, something sparks, and you’re like, who’s that guy? So I felt very privileged to get to see early footage and had my own little private experience of ‘who’s that guy?’ But I was curious about him. I grew up reading comic books.”
“One of the first questions I asked Matt was, ‘Are you looking to adapt something specific? Because I would be less interested in that,” LeFranc continued. “But for him, he said he decided to try to honor the comics but create his own canon and that I was free to do the same thing. So, to me, that’s what made it really exciting.”
With “The Penguin” taking place in the Batman universe, fans have not stopped asking, “When is Batman going to show up?!” LeFranc shared that it was decided early on to sidestep the character altogether.
“When I first talked to Matt about it, he just reiterated that Gotham’s a big city, Batman is just a man, and he cannot be everywhere,” LeFranc said. “I think we like to always imagine that because we’re used to seeing stories and certainly the films from Batman’s perspective, right? So wherever there’s something exciting, it seems like he has to be there because we’re coming at it through the lens of this character. And for this show, there’s not a long timeline. First of all, it’s not very long. It’s probably five or six weeks in total. And so, Matt, obviously, in the second film, will firmly establish where Batman has been, what he’s up to, where Bruce Wayne is, and all of that. But for our show, as we started to examine it and think about it, I stopped asking that level of question because I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t know what Batman’s doing at this very moment, but my job is to tell you what Oz is doing and what the other characters I’ve created around him are doing.”
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The finale premiered Sunday, and many fans are already calling it a masterpiece. This begs the obvious question: Will there be more seasons? LeFranc stopped short of confirming.
“I feel like you have to have an emotional connection as a writer to a story. I would not have done this job if I didn’t feel like I could have an emotional connection or bring my own self to this,” LeFranc said. “I wouldn’t do something just to do it or do it because it’s a hit – if it is or not, or because people think they want more. To me, I’m like, ‘Well, why? What more is there to tell?’ And if it feels like there’s more to tell. I mean, look, Oz is an extremely interesting, intriguing character. And I think many of the characters on our show are also. And there’s a ripe world of Rogues Gallery characters out there that are fascinating potentially. So there’s always something there that if you dig deeply, then you can decide, ‘Oh, do I feel like I have a personal connection enough to this to either keep going and tell a more evolved story with Oz or tell a story through a different lens, a different character.’ But that’s where I begin.”
The finale was filled with big character moments, none more character-defining than the final scene with Oz and his right-hand man, Victor. Fans had been assuming Victor became a known character within the Batman universe, but LeFranc confirmed that the character was always meant for something else. “Where the story goes [with Victor] has always been my intention, and that’s what we do. He is the heart of the show,” LeFranc said without spoiling things. “He was really important to me for a lot of reasons. I’m half Mexican, Aguilar is a family name, and Renzi is Dominican, so Victor is half Mexican and half Dominican as a character. I really wanted more representation like that, and I wanted to make sure that he is a kid who you more deeply find this edge on the road. He comes from a good family. It is a story about corruption in that regard, in a personal way, and how a young man like that, the circumstances he finds himself in, and how he is the most terrible meet cute you could imagine with Oz, who puts him in this dark, strange place with this very odd man at the center, and why would a kid be around a guy like that? Obviously, he doesn’t start with any form of choice.”
“It is a story about grooming, too, which is so common in the mob,” she continued. “It’s a lot about bringing in young men, helping them become violent, helping them see violence as a tool, and teaching them about the criminal world in the sense that life is unfair sometimes, and this is what you need. There are certain people who are more vulnerable to that seduction. I think Victor’s story is, he is really our lens into a man like Oz, certainly the first episode, especially, and then I think we can connect and relate to him more because there’s just so many complicated, problematic characters on this show, and Victor really is an innocent, or at least he starts out like one.”
So, how does this all set up “Batman II?” LeFranc is as in the dark as the rest of us. It turns out Matt Reeves only shared one piece of information about The Penguin’s journey.
“I knew I needed to have him achieve a certain level of power,” LeFranc shared. “Because in the first film, Oz is really an underdog. He’s below Carmine Falcone. He’s pretty low on the totem pole there. And that really differentiated him from previous depictions of Oz. He’s not a criminal mastermind in our show. And he’s not respected. And it was important to us, and I write better, I think, a character who comes from nothing other than one who already has a lot. That’s just my own personal thing. So knowing that and knowing that Oz is grasping for power and clawing his way to the top, that’s the thing that I knew I needed to get Oz to.”
The Playlist Presents – Lauren LeFranc’s Film/TV Recommendation Playlist:
1.) “Shogun” (2024) – Created By Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks
2.) “Baby Reindeer” (2024) – Created By Richard Gadd
3.) “Slow Horses” (2022-Present) – Created By Will Smith
You can stream “The Penguin” in its entirety on Max. Listen to the full interview below:
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