John Turturro has explained why he hasn’t reprised his role in The Penguin.
READ MORE: ‘The Penguin’ review: a compulsive and complex follow-up to ‘The Batman’
The show is a spin-off of The Batman and is set one week after the events of the film. It explores Penguin’s rise to power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld. It is led by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, with The Batman director Matt Reeves serving as an executive producer.
However, Turturro has not appeared in the show to reprise his role as mafia don Carmine Falcone, with Mark Strong stepping in his shoes instead.
“I did what I wanted to with the role,” he says. “In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.”
Falcone kills several women in the original film, but Turturro pointed out that his character’s cruelty was implied in the film rather than shown in the TV show. “It happens off-screen,” Turturro said. “It’s scarier that way.”
A flashback episode of the show reveals that Falcone strangled his wife and Sofia’s mother Isabella. Years later, Falcone continued to strangle women he’d been involved with at the 44 Below club and making their deaths look like hangings.
In a four-star review of The Penguin, NME wrote: “The ensuing journey from the gutter makes this show more compelling than it perhaps should be, and a heavily made-up Farrell is as astonishing as ever in the role. With a sequel to The Batman confirmed, though, Gotham is getting mighty crowded.”
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