The Penguin Showrunner "Respects" Turturro’s Decision to Skip Series

Posted in: Batman, HBO, Movies, TV, Warner Bros | Tagged: Carmine Falcone, HBO, john turturro, Lauren LeFranc, mark strong, The Penguin

The Penguin Showrunner "Respects" Turturro's Decision to Skip Series

The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc shared that they "completely respect" John Turturro's reasons for passing on The Batman spinoff series.

Published Thu, 24 Oct 2024 17:37:10 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Lauren LeFranc, the showrunner for The Batman (2022) spinoff HBO series The Penguin, offers a different account on why original Carmine Falcone actor John Turturro passed on the opportunity to reprise his role for the Colin Farrell-starred series. Regardless of the circumstances that led to the actor's decision, she respects his reasons. Turturro played the crime boss in the Matt Reeves film that saw the debut of Robert Pattinson as The Caped Crusader. Unfortunately, Carmine met a grisly end at the end of The Riddler (Paul Dano), so the only presence we see of the head of the Falcone crime family is with exposition so far into daughter Sofia Falcone's (Cristin Milioti) origin story as her character was introduced in the series, rather than the Warner Bros film – though we do get Mark Strong in the role for some horrific and tragic flashbacks.

The Penguin Showrunner Lauren LeFranc on John Turturro's Decision to Pass Reprising Carmine Falcone

Turturro told Variety that one of the reasons why he passed on the LeFranc spinoff series was what he felt was "a lot of violence toward women," but also admitted there wasn't time, which is more to LeFranc's understanding of the reasons. "To my knowledge, it was due to scheduling conflicts," she told The Wrap. Naturally, the showrunner isn't taking the snub personally, as the ideal situation for any healthy work environment is to enlist those who want to participate. "I completely respect an actor who doesn't want to take on a role for whatever their personal reasons," LeFranc told TheWrap. "I only want people to join our show who are excited and want to further the story we're trying to tell. I think Mark Strong did a really fantastic job. He made the character his own and also really honored what John Turturro did."

The Penguin, which also stars Rhenzy Feliz, Deidre O'Connell, and Theo Rossi, airs on Sundays on HBO and streams on Max.

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