The Penguin showrunner tells us how she chose which comic book characters to include (and exclude)

Since its premiere in September, HBO's The Penguin has continued to receive acclaim from diehard fans of DC Comics, casual viewers, and critics alike. As a spinoff sequel to Matt Reeves' movie The Batman, the limited series continues the titular villain's journey through the crime world of Gotham while also establishing itself as a story independent from the rest of the superhero franchise. It's truly the best of both worlds and I think I speak for most when I say I've been so pleasantly surprised with The Penguin.

While there's certainly a lot of action in The Penguin, at its forefront it is a character-driven story that develops not only Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) but also its supporting characters, including ousted crime family daughter Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) and Oz's new sidekick Vic Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz). It's evident the creatives behind the series really care about the characters and chose not to overstuff it with DC heroes and villains just to attract viewers. Ahead of the premiere, it was already confirmed that Robert Pattinson's Batman would not appear — which I fully believe was a great decision.

The Penguin's Lauren LeFranc interview

I had the opportunity to speak with The Penguin's showrunner Lauren LeFranc at New York Comic Con on Thursday, October 17, where I asked her how she decided which DC characters to include and exclude from her story. She gave a very thoughtful answer, and if I didn't already know this from the high quality of the series, I do now: she should absolutely have the opportunity to work on more DC projects in the future!

Starting with Oz as, of course, the most important part of The Penguin, LeFranc knew he was the "priority" when figuring out who her supporting characters would be.

"It’s his story, it’s understanding who he is, so I started from a place of who this man is," LeFranc shared with Winter is Coming. "Like, who he fears, what he wants, and who he comes from. That’s what brought (Oz's mom) Francis (Deirdre O'Connell) to me. I read a lot of comic books, I tried to pay homage to some and take pieces of things that I responded to, but I wanted to make sure I understood who Oz was psychologically."

As for the Falcones, LeFranc explained that she omitted sibling Mario from the comic books because she wanted to focus on a brother-sister relationship with Sofia and Alberto. For Sofia specifically, LeFranc was very purposeful in how she fleshed out the character:

"And then to bring in Sofia, I wanted to make sure I just evolved her as a character in a way that I kind of wished for when I was a kid. Just have a complicated woman who is flawed and kind of problematic, but you can empathize with. I just felt like in this universe, and also in crime dramas in general, sometimes the women are shortchanged. You could love a character, maybe because the actor is amazing, but they don’t have a backstory to actually dig deeper. "

Although people are loving Farrell's performance as Oz, I think the most surprising element of the show is Milioti as Sofia. Both her portrayal and the character are incredible, and I'm so happy this writing-acting team brought her to life as they have. She is truly a scene-stealer.

When speaking with LeFranc at New York Comic Con, her closing thoughts are what stuck with me the most: "I just tried to create people in the universe that made sense for the story we were telling, and not just to throw in characters just to throw them in." Yes! We need more people to adopt this mindset — I'm looking at you, studio execs!

You can watch our conversation with Lauren LeFranc on our TikTok here.

While diehard fans undoubtedly love seeing some of their favorite characters make cameos in different projects, it usually takes away from the story if they're not written in for a reason other than fan service. I can be a huge fangirl with shows and characters, but I'd much rather have a quality series or movie that makes me connect with what's onscreen than just meaningless Easter eggs and cameos.

We've got four more episodes of The Penguin left and I have no doubt they'll impress. Watch new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and Max, and check back with us at Winter is Coming for our continued episodic reviews.

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