Get ready: ‘The Penguin’ just quietly recast a major ‘Batman’ role no one saw coming

The first episode of The Penguin has a surprise for fans of Matt Reeves’ corner of the DC universe. In addition to bringing Colin Farrell back as Gotham’s most notorious mobster, episode 1, “After Hours,” also recasts a key character from 2022’s The Batman.

Spoiler alert: The following article contains spoilers for episode 1 of The Penguin, “After Hours.”

The Batman follows Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) as he helps Lieutenant Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) track down the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer who targets Gotham’s wealthy and powerful. The Riddler’s goal is to unveil the city’s structural corruption, proving that politicians, police officers, and even judges all work for crime kingpin Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). The Riddler manages to kill Carmine Falcone before he’s brought to justice, leading to a power vacuum from which the Penguin wants to profit in this critically acclaimed limited series.

While The Batman marks the end of Carmine Falcone’s journey in Gotham City, the character has been recast for The Penguin. For those paying attention, Episode 1 already gives us a glimpse of Mark Strong as the ruthless leader of the Falcone family. While Strong is only featured in a blink-and-you-might-miss moment, the image confirms why Carmine Falcone has been recast.

Is Mark Strong playing the same Carmine Falcone as John Turturro?

The first episode of The Penguin recaps the main events of The Batman. The series uses multiple news reports to establish that the Riddler has flooded Gotham City’s poor neighborhoods and killed Carmine Falcone. However, when a reporter announces his death, it’s not John Turturro’s face on the television screen. Instead, the TV channel has used an archive image of Carmine Falcone, played by Mark Strong. More importantly, Strong’s version of Carmine Falcone lacks the grey hair Turturro sported in the movie.

In the news cycles, it’s usual to select images of the deceased that show them at the peak of their career, when their faces became more known to the broader public. It makes sense, then, that in the event of the mobster’s death, TV channels use a photo of the criminal in his prime. There have been whispers about Strong playing a young version of Turturro’s character for The Penguin, but DC Studios has kept the lid shut on the project so far. Yet, with a single image in episode 1, the series has all but confirmed these rumors.

It makes sense for Carmine Falcone to return as a younger version of himself. Reeves has been adamant about avoiding any supernatural element in his version of Gotham City, so the mobster couldn’t just resurrect. Furthermore, The Penguin introduces Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), Carmine’s daughter and wannabe heir of his criminal empire. We don’t know much about Sofia yet, but the series already teases her as having a complicated history with her father. After all, it’s right after Carmine’s death that she leaves Arkham Asylum, where she has been imprisoned for a long time. It’s fair to assume we’ll get flashbacks in future episodes exploring Sofia’s past before she’s sent to Arkham. In that case, a younger Carmine Falcone would fit like a glove.

But why recast the character? Why not simply use special effects to make Turturro look younger? The Penguin is not opposed to extreme makeovers, as the show puts Farrell into an incredibly uncomfortable flesh suit. In comparison, it would be easy to tweak Turturro’s apparent age. Unfortunately, as showrunner Lauren LeFranc revealed in an interview with IGN, Turturro was unavailable. As LeFranc puts it, “he had scheduling conflicts, and we couldn’t make it work.”

Even though Turturro fans might be disappointed with the recast, there are reasons to be excited about Strong’s take on the characters. With his piercing eyes and imposing personality, he should play a terrifying Carmine Falcone.