Spoilers for The Penguin's season finale ahead. If you're a fan of crime-noir TV who hasn't tuned in to The Penguin, you're truly missing out. On September 9, 2024, HBO premiered its limited series spinoff of 2022's The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, which launched a new offshoot of DC Comics' famed superhero world. Just like The Batman carved its own lane as a refreshing, brutal neo-noir caper within the bloated superhero genre, The Penguin now gives Batman villain Oz Cobb (played by Colin Farrell under heavy prosthetics) a Scorcese-esque mobster epic. Set in the aftermath of Gotham's devastating flooding, it follows Oz and former Arkham inmate Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) as they battle each other (and many other underworld gangs) for supremacy in a vulnerable city.
The Penguin wasn't ever going to be the end of Oz Cobb's story, as Farrell was already set to return in the 2026 sequel to The Batman before the series' airing. However, fans are also curious whether Oz and Sofia's stories will continue on the small screen. Below, read on for everything we know about a possible The Penguin season 2 so far.
Has 'The Penguin' been renewed for season 2?
HBO has not yet confirmed whether The Penguin will return for season 2, and the network likely will not share an official answer to the series' fate any time soon. For one, a new season of The Penguin would have to wait until after The Batman Part II arrives in 2026 since the sequel is already confirmed to continue Oz's story. In a post-finale interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Lauren LeFranc confirmed that the final shot of The Penguin, which shows the Bat Signal shining above Gotham, is meant "to launch into [The Batman director Matthew Reeve's] second film."
Another big reason to expect a wait on The Penguin season 2 news is that the show was initially billed as a limited series. Nowadays, the moniker of a limited series is never set in stone (see Big Little Lies, The White Lotus, Shōgun, etc.)—but LeFranc and Reeves have acknowledged since the start of the series that any more episodes would depend on season 1's reception. Now that The Penguin is a certified hit with Emmy buzz, Reeves told EW that he's looking ahead to the series' future.
"We are, in a very preliminary way—me, Lauren, [Reeves' producing partner] Dylan [Clark], and Colin—starting to talk about what would be the way," Reeves told the outlet. "For me, what's really important is that we earn it. The idea of revisiting means that we have to keep that same bar. I know that none of us wants to go back and just do more. We want to go back and do something great. So that's what we're talking about now. We do believe that there's going to be something in there, but it's just beginning. It's exciting though. It's very gratifying."
When would 'The Penguin' season 2 be released?
Unfortunately for The Penguin fans, Reeves' Batman Epic Crime Saga (yes, that's what Reeves' franchise of shows and films is officially called) will likely have to focus on The Batman Part II before we get any news about season 2. The highly-anticipated film is currently set to release on October 2, 2026, and filming is scheduled to start in 2025. Based on that timeline, we could wait for new episodes of The Penguin until 2027.
How does 'The Penguin' set up 'The Batman Part II'?
Though The Penguin is a true standalone series that even viewers with no Batman knowledge can enjoy, Reeves and LeFranc did develop the series to serve as a bridge between 2022's The Batman and the upcoming sequel The Batman Part II. The series began just a week following the events of the 2022 film after the Riddler's terrorist attack destroyed Gotham's seawall and killed Carmine Falcone (played by John Turturro). Now knowing the ending of The Penguin, countless fans are speculating that Oz Cobb will be one of the major villains going up against Robert Pattinson's dark knight in the 2026 film.
The Penguin ends with former Falcone goon Oz Cobb now the kingpin of Gotham's criminal underworld, after a season-long gang war against the city's biggest mob families. In the season finale, he framed his main opposition Sofia Falcone for all of the crimes both he and she committed throughout the season, sending her back to Arkham State Hospital just a few weeks after she'd been released. Oz has risen to his biggest heights—quite literally as he now lives in a penthouse with his comatose mother (Deirdre O’Connell) who hates him. He's also cemented himself as the absolute worst after he viciously strangled his loyal lackey Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) to death.
However, there are some signs that Oz's rise is only temporary. Back in Arkham, Sofia receives a letter from Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), hoping to connect; as fans now know, the women are half-sisters. The two rogues' team-up and potential revenge plot against Oz depends on when Sofia is released from Arkham. Someone else could their hands on Oz much sooner, too.
The season ends with the telltale Bat signal in the sky, showing that the Bat will soon return to take Oz down. (Where he's been, we'll hopefully learn in The Batman Part II.) Speaking to EW, LeFranc explained, "I very much liked the idea of the Batman undercutting the strange, delusional scenario that Oz created for himself at the end, to merit all of his previous actions and to say, 'I finally made it.' And then for us to say, 'Maybe not. Maybe you haven't.'"
Who in the cast would return for 'The Penguin' season 2?
The returning cast for The Penguin season 2 would depend on who makes it out of The Batman II alive, but as of The Penguin's season finale, the main cast members who could return include Colin Farrell (Oz Cobb), Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone Gigante), Deirdre O’Connell (Francis Cobb), Theo Rossi (Dr. Rush), and Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo). While some fans may have been hopeful Oz's betrayal of Vic was a fever dream, Feliz has confirmed that his character is dead and won't return.
Farrell has been very open about sharing his thoughts on returning for a second season throughout The Penguin's run. In September before the series' airing, he made headlines when he confessed during a Total Film interview that he hated wearing the head-to-toe prosthetics that came with his Oz Cobb transformation. "Don’t get me wrong—I loved it—but it got in on me a little bit. By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I fucking wanted it to be finished," he said of filming the series, adding, "When I finished I was like, 'I never want to put that fucking suit and that fucking head on again.'"
However, speaking with The Hollywood Reporter for the season 1 finale, Farrell clarified that he would be open to returning for the right story, especially after the series was so well received. "If there’s a great idea [for season 2], and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course I would do it," he told the outlet.
Farrell isn't the only cast member who has teased that they'd be up to return for more Penguin. In an interview with Esquire, Milioti revealed that she'd like to reprise her role as Sofia Gigante. When asked what roles she would like to play in the future, she said, “I would love to play Sofia again, but I would also be so interested in—I mean, this is off the top of my head.... I will say that watching Colin in prosthetics made me be like, 'I want to try that.' It’s so brutal. What a brutal way to start your morning. It’s three hours every day. But I was like, 'Ooh, I want to do that. I want to try that one time.'"
