It felt like it was close to impossible to get a second season for The Penguin, given that the events of the show are meant to be a self-contained miniseries, and lead directly into The Batman 2. But with how massive of a hit the show has been, both critically and in terms of viewership, well, never say never.
A new interview from The Direct with showrunner Lauren LeFranc is the first time we’ve explicitly heard it is not being ruled out, along with an explanation of how it could come to pass:
“I mean, we put it all out on the table. I think that in order to do a second season, we have to feel like we can top ourselves. We have to feel like there’s something more there to really dig into. I mean, I really care about all these characters, even if they’re terrible people.”
She goes on to theorize about how it may come to pass:
“It’s been a joy to write them, even though they’re twisted and complicated and weird and darkly funny. So look, I think Gotham City is just such a fun sandbox to play, and I’d love to keep playing in it, but I think it just has to be the right thing. We should never do anything just to do it.”
A few notes of caution here. First, it’s entirely possible that they could just give LeFranc one of the other planned Gotham TV series that we already know are in the works. Second, Colin Farrell has been pretty emphatic about never wanting to put on those prosthetics again, though he will for The Batman 2, but he may not want to do so for an entirely new season of a show. (LeFranc said that despite his public comments he was a really good sport about it and “a joy” on set).
Granted we know that Oz will survive The Penguin given that he’s showing up in The Batman 2, but if he survives that then maybe he could have a second season after the events of that movie. Though as LeFranc says, you don’t want to do it just to do it.
This is essentially exactly what’s currently going on over at Marvel with Agatha All Along, another comic book series that amassed a very positive audience reception, and now it too could flip from a miniseries into a show with a second season. Again, it’s doing the same dance where its showrunner is not ruling anything out, so we’ll see. This already happened with Best Drama winner Shogun, turned from a miniseries into a show getting at least two more seasons.
I’m torn. The Penguin is amazing but I’m not sure if I’d want to see them doing it again, especially if Sofia Falcone doesn’t survive the series, as she’s such a big part of why it works. We’ll find out more this Sunday during the finale.
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