WARNING: This article includes SPOILERS from The Penguin episode 2.The Penguin episode 2’s Arkham Asylum DC setup gets explained by director and executive producer Craig Zobel. The Batman spinoff series, The Penguin TV show, is continuing the wild adventures of Oz Cobb, while also fleshing out the universe that Matt Reeves began to build in 2022. In The Penguin episode 2, the HBO drama gave a better idea of what Sofia Falcone had to put up with during her time at Arkham Asylum.
In a new interview with Screen Rant to breakdown the events of The Penguin episode 2, Zobel, who directed this installment, was asked if there were discussions to plant some seeds for the now-scrapped Arkham Asylum show through the Colin Farrell-starring series. Zobel said that there was “to a degree,” while sharing the following about whether there were meant to be bigger ties between The Penguin and the Arkham Asylum series:
Craig Zobel: To a degree. I think that by the time we were making this, the other
Arkham
project was going in a different direction and had different elements to it. So we weren’t beholden to anything, I should say. We didn’t need to set anything up. I happened to know Antonio Campos, who was doing that, so we kind of interacted a little bit, but that wasn’t really the goal of anything with
The Penguin
, and it’s really just [that] we’re in Arkham to be with Sofia, really more than we’re in Arkham to be telling a story about Arkham so much.
Based on Zobel’s commentary, it seems there was a willingness to connect the two projects, even if this isn’t what ultimately happened and wasn’t the intent of placing part of The Penguin‘s story in Arkham. If Warner Bros. TV and Reeves were ever to get the Arkham Asylum TV show resurrected, they could easily pull from anything that The Penguin establishes in episode 2 and upcoming releases of the series. However, while there are shared concepts, it doesn’t appear that The Penguin episode 2 was meant to serve as a traditional backdoor pilot for the Arkham Asylum series.
A regular backdoor pilot for the potential Arkham Asylum drama would have also required the introduction of at least one or two characters that would end up leading the series. Since The Penguin’s Arkham Asylum inclusion is to establish what Sofia had to go through there, it wouldn’t have made any sense to suddenly introduce a major character that would then headline the spinoff. It would be more logical to have The Batman – Part II plant a new player who can then serve as the eyes and ears for the audience in Arkham Asylum.
Time will tell if The Batman’s Arkham Asylum spinoff show could ever get retooled, especially if The Penguin continues to be a major success. Given the big investment there is in The Batman‘s universe, it wouldn’t be shocking if new conversations are perhaps happening about how Arkham Asylum could work, especially after a possible rework of the show itself. But for now, the world will have to wait and see what other aspects of Arkham Asylum viewers will get to see through The Penguin TV show.
The Penguin
airs new episodes on Sundays on HBO at 9 PM, followed by releases on Max.