Mark Strong (Kingsman, Green Lantern) is confirmed to play Carmine Falcone in the upcoming DC series The Penguin, and we have our first official look at the actor in the role.
Strong will play a younger version of Falcone in the series. The character was played by John Turturro in The Batman and it’s his death that created the power vacuum that Oz Cobb is pushing to fill in the series.
It’s safe to assume the scenes that Strong is involved with will be flashback scenes. Strong is a great actor and a lot of fans were hoping he would be playing Hugo Strange, but they are obviously utilizing him in a very different way.
In a recentl interview with Screen Rant , executive producer Matt Reeves talked about why The Penguin is set only a week after the flood which laid waste to Gotham City at the end of The Batman.
He said: “The whole idea is that this story is about that moment that follows the movie. There’s an opportunity where Carmine Falcone has had a stranglehold on power for the last 20 years in this place, and now he’s dead.
“And so someone like Oz, who really believes that he can get more, but no one else believes that this is his moment to strike.”
“And we sort of teased that at the end of The Batman as he’s staring out over the city. And we really wanted to pick things up in that moment.”
Reeves added, “The other parameters that we gave to Lauren were that obviously we know that we want Oz to be in the next movie, and we know the events of that movie.
“And so we just said we need him to have this rise to power to the point that we get him to, and then there needs to be these events that sort of give you the sense that he’s going to be entering the movie in this way.”
Colin Farrell reprises his role as the Penguin, and he is making his moves to take control of the criminal enterprise the city.
The eight-episode Penguin series has been described as a “Scarface-like” series that will see the rise of the villain in the criminal underworld of Gotham City. It was also confirmed that the series will lead directly into the events of The Batman: Part Two.
The series also stars Cristin Milioti, who plays female lead Sofia Falcone, and Rhenzy Feliz, who is playing a teen whom The Penguin befriends and makes his driver. The rest of the cast includes Michael Kelly (House of Cards, Jack Ryan), Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse, House Of Sand And Fog) and Deirdre O’Connell (Outer Range) have joined the DC series.
Lauren LeFranc will serve as writer and showrunner on the series, and when talking about it, he said, “I have long been a fan of the world of The Batman, and Matt’s film is such a powerful and bold entry into the canon.
The Penguin is set to premiere on September 19th.
