Don’t expect to see The Penguin Season 2 any time soon. Oz will next appear in The Batman 2, and it’s unclear what the future holds for this version of Gotham. However, it could still happen.
Did anyone expect The Penguin to be one of the best superhero TV shows of all time? Between the DCEU and the MCU’s flip-flopping lineup of Disney Plus spinoffs, we had cause to be cautious; some stories are simply meant to be movies (or a small part of a larger film).
Matt Reeves, showrunner Lauren LeFranc, and HBO proved every naysayer wrong. It is undoubtedly one of the best TV shows of 2024; a riveting, nasty chapter of Oz Cobb’s crime saga that stands on its own and effectively tees up the next Batman movie with Robert Pattinson.
Colin Farrell will return as Oz in The Batman 2, but what about The Penguin Season 2? Well, there’d need to be a good reason to continue the story.
Will The Penguin Season 2 happen?
The Penguin Season 2 could happen, but LeFranc and Farrell have one condition: they need a “great idea” first.
The Penguin wasn’t necessarily conceived as a limited series, but it does bridge the gap between the first film and The Batman 2 (especially with two teases earlier in the show).
The spinoff ends with Oz as Gotham’s kingpin. All of the city’s mobs serve him. His mother, who suffered a stroke, lives above him (incapacitated) in a penthouse apartment overlooking the city. However, as he dances with Eve, a familiar light hits the sky: the Bat-Signal.
That’s a tease for The Batman 2, obviously, but Reeves has been talking to HBO about a second season.
“We are, in a very preliminary way… starting to talk about what would be the way,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
“For me, what’s really important is that we earn it. The idea of revisiting means that we have to keep that same bar. I know that none of us wants to go back and just do more.
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“We want to go back and do something great. So that’s what we’re talking about now. We do believe that there’s going to be something in there, but it’s just beginning. It’s exciting though. It’s very gratifying.”
Farrell has been candid about returning for Season 2. “If there’s a great idea, and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course I would do it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
Similarly, LeFranc said: “I mean, we put it all out on the table. I think that in order to do a second season, we have to feel like we can top ourselves. We have to feel like there’s something more there to really dig into. I mean, I really care about all these characters, even if they’re terrible people.
“It’s been a joy to write them, even though they’re twisted and complicated and weird and darkly funny. So look, I think Gotham City is just such a fun sandbox to play, and I’d love to keep playing in it, but I think it just has to be the right thing. We should never do anything just to do it.”
Does The Penguin Season 2 have a release date?
The Penguin Season 2 doesn’t have a release date. However, if it gets the green light, don’t expect to see it before late 2026, if not sometime in 2027.
Yes, I know that could be a three-year wait. There’s a simple reason it won’t be released any sooner: The Batman 2’s release date is scheduled for October 2, 2026. Production is set to kick off in April next year.
There’ll almost definitely be a Batman 3, so that has to be taken into account as well. There’s also other spinoffs in quiet development in this corner of the DCU: a series revolving around Arkham Asylum and a show following the Gotham City Police Department (admittedly, both appear to be on indefinite hold right now).
In short, The Penguin Season 2 will dance to the rhythm of the main trilogy’s shooting schedule, so we’ll be waiting a few years for the next chapter of Oz Cobb’s story.
After Episode 8, check The Penguin release schedule, find out more about Magpie, why Oz killed Vic, and why Dr Julian Rush may be a secret Batman villain. You can also find out why one simple change to The Penguin finale would have set up The Batman 2.
