John Turturro Talks About Why He Turned Down the Chance to Reprise His Role From THE BATMAN in Series THE PENGUIN

The Batman was a fantastically dark and fresh take on the story of The Dark Knight, building a new Gotham with deep, rich characters, who we couldn’t wait to see explored further.

While we will have two wait nearly two more years to see the main story continue in The Batman Part II, we did get a deep dive into the character Oz Cobb in the HBO Max series The Penguin. Cobb was played masterfully by Colin Farrell, with practical makeup and prosthetics.

The series takes place just after the end of the first film, telling the story of Oz Cobb’s rise to power. While the movie saw John Turturro’s character, Carmine Falcone, meet his demise, the show offers a look at Cobb and Falcone’s history.

This meant bringing back the character for flashback scenes throughout the series. But when Emmy-winning actor Turturro was approached with the script, he declined coming back. Instead Mark Strong is taking on the Mafia don.

Turturro explained to Variety, “I did what I wanted to with the role. In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing.”

Falcone radiated brutality in The Batman, but in the 2022 movie, his cruelty is implied rather than illustrated. “It happens off-screen,” Turturro says. “It’s scarier that way.”

Turning down a return to Gotham was also partly the reality of there being more opportunities than time. “You can’t do everything you want to,” he admits.

Turturro can next be seen in the second season of the great Apple TV+ series Severance, as well as several more films he is entering production on, including the biopic Wilder & Me, in which he will star opposite Christoph Waltz, Maya Hawke, and Jon Hamm.