Why The Penguin’s ruthless ending complicates plans for Season 2, according to Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell's Oswald 'Oz' Cobb embraced the monster within him in The Penguin Season 1 finale by killing his right-hand man, Victor, and contributing to his mother's vegetative state.

Matt Reeves' The Batman's antagonist Oz starred in his own spin-off series, which followed his rise as the kingpin in the Gotham underworld after the death of crime boss Carmine Falcone.

While Oz was nowhere near a likable character, he took a shockingly dark turn after he ruthlessly killed Victor, a homeless teenager who had earlier become one of his greatest allies.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Farrell discussed the possibility of The Penguin Season 2. While the actor is set to reprise his character in The Batman Part II, he doesn't think Oz will have his individual adventure in the sophomore season after that ruthless finale:

“I certainly think it makes [a second season] more difficult. [Killing Vic] is a very hard thing to claw back from. It’s not impossible, but it’s a tougher hill to climb.”

More on The Penguin in our story.

The Penguin finale saw Colin Farrell's Oz take a shockingly dark turn

While Farrell's Oz was never positioned as a positive main character in The Penguin, fans were still rooting for him. However, in the Season 1 finale, he embraced the monster within him by killing Vic, and Farrell thinks there's no coming back for his character from there.

In the Season 1 finale, after Oz and Victor won over Sophia and the Maronis and were celebrating this moment by the river, the two shared a genuine moment. Oz reminisced about how Victor had come far from his chaotic beginnings and had seen him at his lowest.

However, their peaceful moment in The Penguin finale was interrupted when Victor called Oz his family and unintentionally sealed his tragic fate. Throughout his life, Oz had always viewed family as a weakness, which is why he took that shocking decision and killed Victor.

From his controlling mother to his brothers Jack and Benny, Oz has always hurt his family, and he did the same with Victor. Oz viewed family as a liability, and his ambitions did not allow him to have that weakness, which is why he killed his right-hand man in The Penguin finale.

Discussing that shocking moment in the finale with Deadline, creator Lauren LeFranc noted:

"It’s not because of anything Victor did wrong. I think Oz, in that moment, really chose to kill his own heart and embrace the monster that he is. It is a terrible tragedy, and I’ve always viewed our show as a tragedy."

While Oz was never a likable character to begin with, the audience could still somehow root for him because of his ambitions. The small screen has plenty of anti-heroes fans love, and Oz could have easily been one of them.

However, that final decision was the breaking of his character, as Farrell discussed with Collider:

"I mean, part of me didn't want to do it, you know? I knew that the general sentiment was that, by the end, they kind of wanted to, in a way, kill the Oz that we met in the film. I felt that there was a sense of creative responsibility that leaned towards, 'We cannot have this man as a likable character.'"

While Farrell thinks there's no coming back for Oz in The Penguin Season 2 after his ruthless ending, the character's fate remains to be seen.

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Also Read: 82nd Golden Globes: Colin Farrell's The Penguin wins him the best male actor

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