The Batman's cast is notably absent from the show, despite his character appearing in flashbacks. With a heavy focus on the crime war between Gotham's two biggest criminal families, the Falcones and Maronis, the death of Carmine Falcone has weighed heavily on the series. With Carmine's daughter, Sofia, taking a central role in the show, flashbacks have found a way to bring the character back.

John Turturro, known for his roles in The Big Lebowski and Mr. Deeds, played the villain Carmine Falcone in The Batman, but declined to return for The Penguin. Instead, the actor was recast with Mark Strong, who appeared in flashbacks depicting Sofia's past. While it was previously reported that this was due to scheduling difficulties, new comments make it clear that was not entirely the case, but that Turturro decided not to return after discovering some of the new series' details.

Speaking with Variety to promote the season 2 of Severance, Turturro addressed his not appearing in the Gotham-set television series. He claimed that he had done what he wanted with the character and did not feel a draw to return. In addition, he added that “In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.” He went on, itting that scheduling also led to this decision.

What John Turturro's Comments Mean

Carmine Falcone Does A Lot Of Reprehensible Things Quickly In The Penguin

Strong's Carmine Falcone appears in "Cent'anni," the fourth episode of The Penguin, which focuses predominately on Sofia. The episode deals with Sofia's incarceration in Arkham after she discovers that her father was the Hangman killer and murdered 7 women. The Batman previously established that Carmine had strangled Selina Kyle's mother, but The Penguin pushed his terrifying crimes a lot further, including murdering his wife for attempting to leave him.

While all kinds of violence against both men and women have occurred throughout the run of the show, "Cent'anni" in particular is a difficult watch. In Arkham, Sofia is subjected to incredibly harrowing violence after Carmine frames her and the institution attempts to break her. On top of that, episode 5 "Homecoming" added a brutal flash of violence as Oz dealt with his Maroni problem, in what is arguably one of the most memorably affecting scenes in all of DC live-action.

The combination of Falcone's killings offscreen, the violence in "Homecoming", and the onscreen persecution of Sofia made for a disturbing but effective episode, although it surely would have turned some viewers off. With Carmine's limited role in the series being especially focused around inflicting violence on women, it makes sense that Turturro felt somewhat uncomfortable with the direction of the role. While scheduling conflicts were previously cited for Turturro's absence, this additional context does help to explain his decision not to return when considering the difficulty of playing a disturbing role like Carmine.

At the same time, what The Penguin actually glorifies is powerful women. The most significant influences - both as allies and enemies - on Oz Cobb are women. His mother, Francis (Deirdre O'Connell), his girlfriend Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo), and Sofia herself.

John Turturro's Penguin Rejection Misunderstands A Key Part Of The Show

As some of the social reactions to Turturro's quotes have pointed out, the death of Selina Kyle's mother in The Batman was hardly different to how The Penguin frames violence. And more importantly, The Penguin's message is one that defies a surface level reading of violence against women. Yes, Sofia's story is marked by trauma and violence, but it's a reclamation story: her Arkham backstory is about her identity being removed, but "Cent'anni" is about her reclaiming her own story and "taking up space."

The show in no way glorifies the violence it adopts: it is perverse, disgusting, despicable by design. And Sofia's time in Arkham isn't about celebrating how the trauma she goes through makes her a "cool" character, it's about exploring loaded ideas about the representation of women in this sort of TV show.

Show-runner Lauren LeFranc has openly discussed this aspect of the show, and suggesting it's something distasteful without examining why it's part of the storytelling is misguided. Of course Turturro didn't have to sign back on to play Carmine, he is under no obligation, but reductive criticisms have to be examined too. Carmine Falcone is very actively dismantled by Sofia as punishment for what he did to her: she becomes Sofia Gigante only by fighting back against that trauma and assuming her new role.

And it shouldn't be overlooked that Sofia crumbles Carmine's empire to dust, even as it fights to keep her in her place. Instead of quietly going off to Italy as a dirty Falcone secret, she kills the family, makes an alliance with his greatest enemy (Sal Maroni), and rejects his name. This was always about cathartic vengeance.

Our Take On John Turturro's Comments

The Actor's Justification Makes More Sense When Recognizing Scheduling Conflicts Were Also In Play

Though the actor credits the show's violence against women as a reason for declining to appear, it would be wrong not to concede that Turturro's ing on the project was much more multifaceted. The actor did it that, with his full schedule, “You can’t do everything you want to,” which has forced him to take a more critical eye to his projects. Turturro is an excellent actor, and it is disappointing not to see him in the series. However, the onscreen performance of Carmine Falcone is not nearly as important in The Penguin as it was in The Batman, and Mark Strong made for an excellent replacement.

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