The Batman star John Turturro has revealed what stopped him from reprising his role as Carmine Falcone in The Penguin but the answer is a little baffling.
HBO Max’s The Penguin is a spin-off to Matt Reeve’s stellar 2022 film The Batman. Given how the show has tracked so far, it looks as if it will enjoy a similar success to the movie it stems from.
Fans of the properties are analyzing every minute detail to draw connections between the two and theorizing over which characters from the show will play a role in The Batman’s sequel. Inversely, some characters from the original film make an appearance in the Penguin but those who have seen Episode 4 will have noticed an interesting casting change.
John Turturro who played the notorious crime boss Carmine Falcone did not step back into the role despite the character being present in The Penguin. In an interview with Variety, he explained his reasons for turning down the part but they’re a little hard to make sense of.
“I did what I wanted to with the role,” Turturro explained before elaborating. “In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.”
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In the movie, Falcone’s violent tendencies towards the opposite sex are a core part of the narrative having killed Selina Kyle’s mother and her roommate. “It happens off-screen,” Turturro said by way of explanation. “It’s scarier that way.”
While it’s true that the strangling of Kyle’s mother and roommate both occur off-screen, Falcone has a fairly violent encounter with Catwoman herself. In which, he strangles her with a pool cue.
The response has confused fans reacting to the news when it was shared on X (formerly Twitter). “I respect his morals but did he not research who Carmine was before The Batman,” one user said. “Isn’t that kind of the point? Carmine Falcone is a bad person. He’s a villain,” another added.
In place of Turturro, Mark Strong played Carmine Falcone in The Penguin and gave a solid performance as a younger version of the despicable mafioso.
