How the end of “The Penguin” heralds “The Batman Part 2” – and perhaps season 2 too

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The penguin Season finale “A Great or Little Thing.”

When The Batman Director Matt Reeves knew what the general story of his sequel would be, and he anticipated Lauren LeFranc, the showrunner and head writer of the HBO spinoff series The penguin. “I’m always interested,” she says Weekly entertainment. “I’m like, ‘Can I plant something for you? Is there anything I can do to help your film?’ We have the real estate to do it.”

The penguinThe big ending with the season finale episode “A Great or Little Thing” does the most in this regard.

Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), dressed in a tuxedo reminiscent of the classic penguin villain images from DC Comics, celebrates his many victories in a penthouse suite. After a long gang war that claimed many lives, he successfully established himself as a leader in Gotham’s criminal underworld. he sent his main rival Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) back to her worst nightmare at Arkham State Hospital; and now he has his ailing mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) all to himself, as she is effectively trapped in her own unresponsive body, forced to remain in a hospital bed in her deranged son’s home.

But the ending signals – quite literally – that the game is not over yet. While in her cell in Arkham, Sofia receives a letter from Selina Kyle, Reeves’ Catwoman by Zoë Kravitz. The Batman. She hopes to create a connection, recognizing that both are half-sisters. Jayme Lawson also reprises her role as Gotham City’s new mayor, Bella Reál, for a brief appearance in the series. Then, in the final shot of the hour, as Oz dances with Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo), who is dressed as his mother, the bat signal glows in the distance in the night sky. Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight will soon join the fray.

“As we were writing the season, we discussed many times whether there might be a crossover that felt earned,” Reeves tells EW in a separate interview about the nod to Pattinson’s Batman. “We tried a few different ideas conceptually, none of which ended up ever being written, but nothing seemed to fit together quite enough to feel earned.” One idea they toyed with was having Bruce Wayne before Vic (Rhenzy Feliz), Oz’s right-hand man to perform. “But even that messed things up too much,” the filmmaker adds.

“We wanted our characters to be the main characters you follow in this show,” LeFranc explains. “Anything that distracted from that wasn’t the type of show we wanted to make.”

LeFranc knew from the beginning what ending she wanted. “Everything I put in the first episode I put in consciously, even though I knew where we were going,” she says. LeFranc wanted Oz to ultimately kill Vic by strangling the child to death on a similar park bench where the couple once shared slushies in the premiere (“suicide slushies,” as she now calls them). “It’s not about how he kills Vic because he thinks Vic abandoned him or that someone manipulated him,” Reeves notes. “He kills him because he can’t stand the fact that he’s actually that close to this kid because it makes him weak. Basically, he’s trying to stifle his vulnerability.”

LeFranc also knew that she wanted Oz to be the one to drive Sofia back to Arkham, as a distorted reflection of his beginnings as her driver years before. “In the final scene between Oz and Sofia, there are also allusions to conversations they had at the beginning of the season,” emphasizes the showrunner. As for whether a physical Kravitz cameo was ever on the cards, LeFranc recalls that they never looked into that scenario “in depth.” “Fans know that they are half-sisters, so it was important to acknowledge that in this way and plan for a possible future,” she notes, “but even more important is to end Sofia’s storyline in Arkham. She is in this terrible state of mind, and yet this letter from Selina feels like a hint of hope.

The third element, which LeFranc knew early on that she wanted Francis, would become her worst nightmare. “We’ve been planting this purple dress all season to get this effect,” LeFranc says of Eve, who now wears the sequined gown in the finale.

Ultimately, the showrunner knew she wanted “Bat Signal” to appear at the very end, “to introduce Matt’s second film,” she continues. “I really liked the idea of ​​Batman subverting the strange, delusional scenario that Oz concocted at the end to honor all of his previous actions and say, ‘I’ve finally done it.’ And then we say, “Maybe not.”

Reeves previously confirmed to EW that Oz will be one of the entry points The Batman Part IIwhich will be filmed next year and will be released in theaters on October 2, 2026. “We kind of show you at the end that the story isn’t over yet,” Reeves says. “The idea that Oz and these characters could eventually be on a collision course with Batman is, of course, widespread. So we wanted to give you a sense of that without concealing that this is really the conclusion of the story.”

At the same time, there could be a reality in which The penguin The series will continue with season 2. Reeves acknowledged early in development that HBO executives might want to see more of the series. Now that the comic book-inspired crime drama has an equal audience The Last of Us And House of the Dragon (according to Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings call to investors in November) and critical acclaim for Farrell and Milioti’s performances, discussions are ongoing.

“We are, in a very tentative way – me, Lauren, [Reeves’ producing partner] Dylan [Clark]and Colin start talking about what the path would be,” confirms the director. “For me it’s really important that we deserve it.” The idea of ​​a revisit means we have to maintain the same bar. I know that none of us want to go back and just do more. We want to go back and do something great. We’re talking about that now. While we believe there will be something in there, it’s just beginning. It’s still exciting. It’s very gratifying.”

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An early report (published after EW’s interviews with Reeves and LeFranc) suggested a new spin-off from The Batman The series based on Barry Keoghan’s Joker has been considered for the next HBO series. However, a source familiar with the situation tells EW that this is false. Reeves admits that “there is an urgency” in the sense that HBO would obviously like to know what those plans might entail, but says, “I haven’t been able to tell you the timeline yet.”

All he can say at this particular time is: “We are leaving Oz and.” [Gotham] in a state where the city is still trying to heal from what happened. It is also a time, as you can see [with] What happens to Vic and Crown Point, where the city is deeply wounded? When we start the film, all of this stuff is still on everyone’s lips. The impact of what happened as a result of the last film and what happened during this gang war largely dictates the way we engage with it [The Batman Part II].”