DC is a gigantic franchise with plenty of characters available to call in and feature at any moment, especially when visiting an iconic location like Arkham Asylum but still, The Penguin chose to play its cards close to its chest.
In the fourth episode we saw the backstory of Sofia Falcone and how she became The Hangman, which shifts focus to one of DC’s most notorious facilities, Arkham Asylum. Inside this facility there are plenty of characters we all know and love, notably the Joker and Harley Quinn. But still, the team behind The Penguin chose not to invoke any of these characters, and their reason not to do so makes a lot of sense.
“We didn’t want to have a character that would detract from her experience or have people be like, Oh, it’s [that villain]!’ Not a casual Joker, not a Harley Quinn,” series showrunner Lauren LeFranc told The Direct. “Like, those characters are amazing. But for what we were doing, we’re telling Sophia’s story, and we just want you to be immersed in her perspective, in her world.”
There’s no denying that the team did a magnificent job of illustrating just how terrifying and corrupt Arkham Asylum truly is and they did it without needing to draw on the wider DC canon. That’s an impressive achievement and is extremely refreshing in a world where superhero projects try to cram as many cameos down your throat in every possible moment.
The Penguin is one of the best comic book shows in years and it has achieved this without constantly calling back to past DC projects, but instead delivering a compelling story through characters that all have reasons to root for them and an overall story that’s high stakes and filled with twists to keep you hooked week after week.
We’ve still got more to come from this series so there’s always the chance that other major DC players will show up as things continue to heat up in Gotham, but we don’t expect to be visiting Arkham Asylum again anytime soon. If you were truly hoping to see Joker in Reeves’ DC world then you’ll need to settle for that deleted scene from The Batman for now, but it seems almost certainly he’ll have a bigger role in its sequel. We’ll just have to wait and see.
There’s still more of The Penguin to come but if you haven’t caught up you can binge the first six episodes on Max now.
Episode 6 is available now with the final two installments set to air on Sunday, Nov. 3, and Nov. 10. If you’re looking for more of a DC fix after getting caught up you can also stream The Batman on Max.
Published: Oct 28, 2024 04:27 am