For the entirety of its eight-episode run, The Penguin managed to avoid the big bat in the room. Despite being a direct sequel of Matt Reeves’ The Batman and centering around the scene-stealing villain of the 2022 comic book movie, low-level mob enforcer Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), The Penguin very much existed in its own little corner of Gotham, to the point that it had fans wondering: where was Batman during all of this?
But with its jaw-dropping finale, the absence of the Caped Crusader was finally acknowledged — and one of his allies from The Batman was also given a hat tip. Could all these tiny little references be a hint as to what to expect in The Batman II? The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc is tight-lipped on the answer but spoke to Inverse about the finale’s final moments and what it means for fan-favorite character, Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti).
Spoilers for The Penguin Episode 8, “Great or Little Thing,” follow!
By the end of the finale of The Penguin, Oz is on top of the world — he’s washed his hands of his criminal affiliations with the Falcones and the Maronis, and he’s now a “respectable” associate of Councilman Sebastian Hady. His scheme has landed Sofia Gigante back in Arkham, setting her up to take the fall for all his crimes. But what of Sofia? She’s back in the worst place in the world, the institution that broke her physically and mentally — but there’s a ray of hope.
Does Sofia’s Letter Set Up Batman II?
The last time we see Sofia in The Penguin finale, she’s just received a letter from a woman named Selina Kyle — AKA Catwoman — who is claiming to be her half-sister. It’s a huge revelation, and one that LeFranc felt was the necessary capper to Sofia’s tragic arc in The Penguin.
“Sofia deserved some form of hope in the end, not just a tragedy,” LeFranc tells Inverse.
But apart from feeling like an appropriate place to end the arc of one of The Penguin’s most compelling characters, this moment is the huge connection to The Batman that fans might’ve been waiting for (in addition to the flash of the Bat Signal in the final shot of the finale). This ties Sofia Gigante to Selina Kyle, one of the main characters in The Batman, and one of Batman’s biggest — and most unpredictable — allies. With Zoe Kravitz set to return as Catwoman in The Batman II, could this mean that Sofia Gigante will make the leap to the big screen as well?
LeFranc was understandably vague about this, only telling Inverse that Sofia receiving a letter from Selina was not a scene requested by Matt Reeves. “It's something that felt right for her character, but he was obviously supportive of it. If he wasn't, we wouldn't have done it,” LeFranc says.
LeFranc was emphatic that only Reeves could share more details about The Batman II, and that her role was simply to get Oz and Sofia to where they needed to be by the beginning of the movie. “This is my little play into the universe, and now it's up to him to decide what he does with where we've gotten Oz and Sofia and everybody else in our show,” LeFranc says. “Now, I've finished my part in this.”
But with Oz and Sofia in place for the events of The Batman II, what can the comics tell us about this mysterious sequel? More than you think.
Dark Victory in The Batman II?
In The Batman, Reeves took major inspiration from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s iconic comic book series The Long Halloween, adopting both the comic’s moody noir tone and several of its plot twists. Though other Batman films like Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight also borrowed heavily from The Long Halloween, The Batman might be the most loyal big-screen adaptation of the comic — there’s the Halloween night setting, the mysterious string of serial killings, the complex mob conspiracies, and the secret connections between Carmine Falcone and Selina Kyle and Thomas Wayne. This fact lends credence to the argument that The Batman II could take inspiration from The Long Halloween’s lesser-known sequel, Dark Victory.
In Dark Victory, Batman deals with another string of murders, this time perpetuated by a villain known as the Hangman, as Gotham suffers through a territory rumble with the remnants of the Falcone mob. Sofia Falcone emerges as a major player, while Selina Kyle’s parentage via Carmine Falcone also becomes a factor.
The Hangman storyline was loosely adapted in The Penguin, setting up a stronger connection with Dark Victory — and planting the seeds for the rest of the comic book to influence the plot of The Batman II. With Sofia and Selina potentially set to make contact after this letter, it certainly feels like Dark Victory could be the closest one-to-one plot for The Batman II. LeFranc was mum over any Dark Victory connections when asked, but says this: “Certainly, I know Long Halloween and Dark Victory were prominent comics that Matt also read for his film.”
