“Lauren Lefranc Knows She Broke Your Heart With That Shocking Death in the Finale of HBO’s The Penguin – But That Wasn’t the Point. What she does not KNOW (Any More Than You Do) Is Whather Her Emmy-Nominated Series (24 Noms!) Will Have a Season Season. EITHER WAY, LEFRANC CAN’T RETURN TO GOTHAM CITY UNTIL”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
EITHER WAY, LEFRANC CAN’T RETURN TO GOTHAM CITY UNTIL After Robert Pattinson Puts the Cowl Back on fort Reeves’ The Batman Part II. In Case You Haven’t Heard, There’s A Whole DC Universe Plan in Place Now.
The ShowRunner and Executive Producer Talks to Thr About How Long Voters and Fans Will Have to Wait for A Potential Season Two and Doing A Batman Show Without Batman.
I KNOW The penguin Premiered in September, But It Feels Like is Been Years.
I KNOW, IT IS STRANGE. It’s Funny, Because I Do Feel Like It Also Took A Really Long Time to Shoot. With the Strike Shutdown, we had started in the winter, and the then by the Time We Came Back, We Went Into Winter Again. So, we have two winters of shooting The penguinSO TIME DOES SLOW IN THAT WAY. But Honestly, I Know How Rare It Is To Be Recognized In this Way, SO IT’S ACTUAL LOVELY LOVELY TO Se See So Many People in Our Cast and Crew Be Recognized In The Story. That’s trly the most fulfilling things. SO EVEN IF IT COMES ALMOST A Year Since We Premiered, It Really Has Been A Pleasure.
What’s The Status of a Season Two?
I don’t know. There’s no current status update. I Think Matt Just Turned in His Script (For The Batman Part II), so i’m excited to read that soon and see what comes of that – if there is anything that’s that merites a second season[of[ofThe penguin]or not. I THINK WE’V SAID THIS BEFORE, BUT I TRULY MEAN IT: WE DEEL CONFIDENT WE CONFIDENT WEP OURSELVES, AND THAT’S CONMETING THAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT TO Colin Farrell; OtherJise, we don’t want to do someting again if it’s not going to be excellent. We Were Always Meant to Be A Limited Series. SO, PIVOTING TO ACOND SEASON IS JUST DIFFERENT – IT’S NOT SOMETING WE EVER REALLY TALKED ABOUT.
And You Couldn’t Return Before The Batman Part II Anyway, whochh has been delayed to 2027.
Right. The interaction of OUR FIRST SEASON ALWAYS WAS, We’re Launching Oz Into The Second Film, and So We Couldn’t Air a Season Until After Matt’s Movie Comes Out.
You’re not involved in the Films – does it feel in any way “that” that a major reason for your show’s existence is in Service to the Films?
It’s Interesting You Say That. I KNOW I Technically Am The Bridge, But I Don’t – That’s Not How I View It or How I Feel or Think of It In Terms of Our Show, Really at all. For me, it’s like i’m in the same gotham city universe that matt establized in the film. I’m showing you Different sides of it, i’m showing you digffrent characters and look at gotham as a city also through lens. Our Show Is Very Cinematic, and It’s A Different Form of Storytelling. Television is Longform Storytelling, SO that afford US More Time. We Made Eight Big Episodes, and We Got to Spend a Lot More Time with Our Characters and Really Dig Into Who and Whaty’re Afraid of. We Get to Unravel Them Slowly, and We Allow for Different Reveals and Moments WHERE YOU GET TO DEEPEN YOUR UNDERANCE OF TESE Characters, and that’s Really Hard. But is extraordinary what matt did in the First Film, and i’m suere the Second Film Will Be that As Well. They’re just figrent Mediums, so that’s how and look at it. But I don’t feel “less than” being a tv show.
Was Robert Pattinson Ever Close to Appearing on The penguin Season One?
Matt and I Talked About It A Lot. It Just Didn’t Feel Necessary. It Felt Like We’d Be Wrenning Him in Just To Say We Have The Batman in Our Show, Who in Reality, I Feel Like My Goal At Least Was Always to Create WHICH I KNOW IS A TALL ORDER BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE BATAN, AND ROB PATTINSON IS So Good As Batman. But, Yes, We Were Doing Something A Little Different. We’re Through the Lens of Oz. We’re on the streets. There’s A Gang War Happening. We Always Wuld Say, “Batman’s Up High Looking Down on Gotham, and Oz is in the Muck, Wanting to Get Up there and to Achiev a level of Power.” SO, YES, WE TALKED ABOUT IT, But HONESTLY, WE JUST DIDNN’T WANT TO INTERFERE COMPLETE THAT WE HAD.
Wound he appetar in season two if we get one?
I MEAN, THERE’S NOT EVEN A Season Two Right Now. SO I CAN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THAT.
Rhenzy Feliz (Left) As Victor and Colin Farrell As Oz in HBO’s The penguin. Courtesy of HBO
At the end of The penguinSofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) Receives a Letter from Selina Kyle, Who We Know Is Catwoman (Played by Zoë Kravitz in the Movie). If there’s a Second Season, is the letter signaling that catwoman will be in it?
From My Perspective, It’s About Sofia’s Emotional Arc As A Character, that the Whole Season Is About the fact that her Family have hadrayed her. She’s Trying to Reach Out. She’s Trying to Figure Herself Out in this Family, and She Ultimately Realizes She’s Very Alone. And, obvioses, she then dramatically murders most of them, but she have this tension and this pain mixed up in her. And she goes to see gia, Her Little Cousin, in this Children’s Home That Is Very Reminiscent of Arkham Asylum in a Lot of Ways. And she leaaves her there because that’s what sofia would do. So you understand that her as a character, she have a lot of complex femings regarding family, and any sort of material or not-MaterNal Feelings she have. SO, by the end-WHEN OZ QUOTE-UNQUOTE WINS AND HE SENENCES HER to A DEPER FORM OF HELL THAN DEOTH by Bringing Her Back to Arkham-She’s All Alone Now, Andest, Andest, Andest. Important to me to give her a Semblance of Hope.
Selina Kyle’s Letter to Her Is Saying – Whats the Audence Who’s Seen The Batman ALRREADY Wuld Know-Is They’re Half-Sisters. That was was establized in matt’s movie that selina Kyle is carmine Falcone’s Illegitimate Daughter, Right? And we know sofia is carmine’s Daughter as Well, and so on’s more of a “maybe you have family here, maybe there That is what the intention of that letter is.
I Remember All Throughout Fox’s Gotham Run The Recurring Question Was, “How Could You Have A Batman Show Without Batman?” But I Think The penguin is Exactly How You Could Have A Quote-UNquote Batman Show Without Batman.
Thank you for saying that. We Knew We Were Not Going to Be A SHOW WHERE We’re Throwing in the Kitchen Sink. It’s Not Necessary. Obviously, We’re Set in Gotham City, But But We Really Consider Ourselves a Crime Drama at Heart, and IT’s A Character Drama. And so, when you break Things from the place of character and whoy they psychologically and what they are’re stringing for, you’re not touching inherently as much. just do this bit or that bit? ” It’s More About, “Who Are These People? What do they want? How do they interact with each of the other? How can we keep surprising the audience?” We’re Focused More on Just the Dramatic Storytelling and Digging Defeer Into Characters.
Was there a Version of The penguin In WHICH YOU DIDN’T KILL VIC (Rhenzy Feliz)?
No. Before I Had A Writers Room, I Broke Out Every Character’s Backstory and Their Entire Emotion ARC. SO, Part of My Pitch to HBO ALWAYS WAS, “Victor Dies in the End by Oz’s Hand. It’s Slow and Intimate and Painful.” That washa always the interaction.
This Story First appeared in an august stand-alone Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To Receive The Magazine, Click Here to Subscribe.