We’re more than halfway into The Penguin’s run on HBO, and along with Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb being placed front and center, we’ve also seen some other fellow The Batman alums briefly reprise their roles. Additionally, the episode “Cent'Anni” included flashbacks featuring Carmine Falcone, only rather than being reprised by John Turturro, Mark Strong played the younger version of the character. Although Turturro’s absence from this DC TV show airing running on the 2024 TV schedule was initially attributed to scheduling conflicts, the actor has now explained the real reason why he didn’t return for The Penguin.
While speaking with Variety about his new movie The Room Next Door (which will open wide in the United States early on in the 2025 movies schedule), Turturro briefly mentioned that he didn’t feel like returning for The Penguin because he didn’t care for the subject matter involved. In his words:
I did what I wanted to with the role. In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.
Warning: SPOILERS for The Penguin are ahead!
Those who’ve been watching The Penguin, whether it be live or later on with their Max subscription, know that Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone spent ten years at Arkham for strangling numerous women to death as The Hangman. However, as revealed in “Cent'Anni,” it was actually her father Carmine who committed these murders, which included his wife and Sofia and Alberto’s mother, Isabella, who was originally thought to have died by suicide. When Sofia started aiding the police in their investigation into the deaths of women who worked at the Iceberg Lounge and also initially thought to have hanged themselves, Carmine framed his own daughter and had her institutionalized to prevent her from talking.
Evidently this aspect of Carmine Falcone was enough to dissuade John Turturro from reprising Carmine Falcone, which is why Mark Strong (who previously played Sinestro in Green Lantern and Dr. Sivana in Shazam!) was cast in his place. Turturro also said the following about how he preferred that Carmine’s brutality was only implied during The Batman rather than outright shown:
It happens off-screen. It’s scarier that way.
It’s important to note that we never actually see Strong’s younger Carmine Falcone ever actually strangle these women onscreen during The Penguin, so Turturro wouldn’t have needed to worry about acting out such scenes. That said, assuming he read all of the “Cent'Anni” script, he may be referring to the other deaths shown in the episode, like when Sofia killed Magpie at Arkham and gassed almost the entirety of her family to death in the present day storyline. Regardless, Turturro sounds like he’s content with what he accomplished with Carmine during his time on The Batman, which saw his character being killed by The Riddler.
New episodes of The Penguin air Sundays at 9 pm ET on HBO and are released on Max shortly thereafter. Following the conclusion of the miniseries, the shared universe known as the Batman Epic Crime Saga will pick back up when The Batman: Part II is released on October 2, 2026.
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