Like its titular character, DC and HBO’s The Penguin has played on viewers’ initial underestimation of a spinoff TV series centered around The Penguin character. The Batman director Matt Reeves, showrunner Lauren LeFranc, and a talented team of writers, directors, and actors have arguably delivered DC’s first prestige-level live-action TV show – one that’s directly connected to a major movie franchise (The Batman). At the time of writing this, The Penguin has aired four of its eight episodes, and even now, at the halfway point, there’s already talk of the show and its cast being locked for 2025 Emmy Awards.
However, now that Emmys are looking more and more like a realistic possibility for The Penguin, those awards hopes could have a direct influence on another big question looming over the series: will it continue?
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The Penguin star Colin Farrell has been hesitant to commit to another whole season playing Oswald “Oz” Cobb/Penguin; the actor is already slated to return for Reeves’ sequel film, The Batman: Part II, but beyond that his future in the franchise is unclear. But as far as HBO, Warner Bros., and DC Studios are concerned, announcing a second season of The Penguin may be a key strategy.
Earlier this year, another breakout hit TV series – Disney and FX’s Shōgun – found itself in almost the same place as The Penguin: not that much hype initially, before exploding into a critical darling and trending consistently, as fans drummed up support for awards acclaim to follow for the actors, crew, and show itself. Like Penguin, Shōgun was first presented as a “limited series”; however, once the show became a big hit, and Emmys entered the discussion, the studios had a pivotal decision to make.
Being a limited series left Shōgun facing the actual limitation of only qualifying in the smaller range of Emmys categories set aside for limited series; Disney and FX were hoping for the series to be a much larger Emmys darling, which could only happen if it was an ongoing series. Despite Shōgun being based on a single novel by author James Clavell, FX announced (before the Emmys) that Shōgun would be returning for Seasons 2 and 3, with series star and executive producer Hiroyuki Sanada already signed on to return as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. That change in show format worked as masterfully as one of Toranaga political schemes: Shōgun walked away as a big winner at the 2024 Emmy Awards, with 18 nominations, resulting in a win of four Emmys at the Primetime Awards (including the biggest categories of “Oustanding Drama Series,” Outstanding Lead Actor in A Drama Series” (Sanada), “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series” (Anna Sawai), and “Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series”), as well as fourteen additional award wins at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (in major production and technical categories).
It seems that the Shōgun just blazed the kind of path that The Penguin should follow. It’s looking like DC Studios and HBO (as well as HBO’s Max streaming platform) finally have their first piece of prestige-level comic book TV content since HBO’s Watchmen. Watchmen stuck to its guns as being a limited series – and cleaned up in both the major categories for limited series and the creative ones, as the 2020 Emmys. HBO knows better than anyone what the gap is between the perception of limited series wins and major category wins; there’s also the fact that Farrell’s Penguin is already part of an ongoing story with The Batman: Part II on the way.
Keeping The Penguin set as a single-season limited series seems like the kind of wasted opportunity for greater glory that Penguin himself would be furious about. There’s still skepticism about whether we’ll see Shōgun push forward into additional seasons, or if the cast and crew fade away into new projects towing their Emmy wins, while those promised new seasons fade into development limbo. DC and Warner Bros. are in an even better position to “tease” another season of Penguin early next year, run an Emmys campaign in all the major categories, and later revise those plans under the excuse of The Batman 2 or larger The Batman Universe changing course. It’s the kind of hustle Oz Cobb would run, and a power move fans would (enthusiastically) support.
The Penguin airs new episodes Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max.