‘He walks into a room and just takes charge’: Showrunner Lauren LeFranc breathes new life into Gotham with ‘The Penguin’

The Penguin takes us into Oz Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) version of Gotham. Taking place right after the events of The Batman, the series is a fascinating look at the underbelly of the Dark Knight’s home, and showrunner Lauren LeFranc gives Gotham’s mafia families a turn in the limelight.

Speaking with LeFranc at the press junket roundtable for the series, she shared some of her insights into the show. One of my favorite details comes from the show’s ties to The Batman. Though they are few and far between, with just Oz speaking Spanish (as he canonically knew Spanish in the film), giving fans a little tease of Batman’s (Robert Pattinson) world, it is fascinating how much The Penguin exists as its own thing.

“I think it’s just about being really particular and very detail-focused,” she said about bringing in small details from the film. “The devil’s in the details and to me, that’s what is so meaningful. In everything I write, I want those small little moments. I want to make sure that it’s not just about scope and scale and something bigger, but it’s about really living and engaging with those characters.”

She went on to talk about the Gotham that Matt Reeves built with The Batman:

“Obviously I wanted to also honor what Matt built in his version of Gotham City from The Batman. So I wanted to become sort of an expert in that and to take that and run with it and then try to make something wholly new from that while still honoring it. The benefit is we get to follow a guy like Oz. He’s so different than the Batman. So the mood and the tone in that regard is quite different. But as to your point, I wanted to make sure that when you looked at Gotham City, it did still feel like the same place, and who Oz is and what was established in The Batman is still our Oz. We just get to deepen him and get to learn much more about him and his backstory and his history and why he is the way he is. And that to me is kind of the most exciting part about getting to do a project like this.”

Balancing comedy and the mafia tone of The Penguin

Part of the allure of Oz in The Batman was his humor. Cracking jokes at Batman’s expense, yelling things at Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) that were relatable but also hilarious in context. Those are the moments that stuck out with Reeves’ film and made Oz a fascinating aspect of the movie. With The Penguin, we get to still have that humor but with a bit more of a serious tone from him as he navigates the Falcone family.

Sofia (Cristin Milioti) is back and wants vengeance for her brother’s death. Oz, the man responsible, has to keep trying to hide that fact. There is beautiful comedy in Sofia’s deep need to prove herself and her darker approach to the Falcone lifestyle vs. Oz’s chaotic energy.

“It’s most exciting when I can keep myself entertained honestly as a writer,” LeFranc said when I asked about finding the balance between the tones in the show. “I love mixing tones. I’ve always loved comedy, I love writing comedy and I also really like darker emotional grittier stories as well. I like both because I feel like that’s what makes us people and that’s very accurate to the world. And I think, you know, if our show was only violent or only showing the sort of darker side, it’s just for me hard to really enjoy and watch. And so I wanted to mix that up. I think it’s more accurate to the way people are. And so all of our characters have sort of a dark humor to them or a wit to them in different ways. Of course. I mean, it’s very freeing to write a man like Oz ’cause he can say and do whatever he wants.”

She went on to talk about Oz’s power in Gotham:

“He walks into a room and he just takes charge,” LeFranc said. “And I don’t often get to do that. So it’s really fun to write a character like him and also really engaging to write all the other characters on our show. Like Sofia Falcone, she’s a really complex woman. She’s very multidimensional. And to be able to sort of have that counterbalance and then bring in Victor who’s just the heart of our show and Francis who’s just got bite and grit in her own right, it’s really a joy to get to have all these different dynamic characters and to explore them deeply.”

The Penguin is available on HBO and HBO Max. New episodes will be released on Sundays.