John Turturro spills the beans about The Penguin! The beloved actor reveals the true reason he didn’t return as Carmine Falcone in the highly-rated spin-off.
The Penguin was full of plenty of fun surprises, as well as some that were…less fun, to say the least. However, one of the most shocking surprises didn’t actually come from the story, but outside of it. Fans were stunned when it was confirmed that Mark Strong would be taking over the role of Carmine Falcone from John Turturro, who declined to return following his role in The Batman.
Though in a surprising stint of transparency, John Turturro was actually fully forthright with fans about why he chose not to return to play Carmine Falcone in The Penguin. According to the actor, he declined a role in the series due to the dark subject matter it dealt with. Specifically, when it came to violence against women.
“I did what I wanted to with the role,” Turturro told Variety in 2024. “In the show, there was a lot of violence towards women, and that’s not my thing. It happens off-screen [in The Batman]. It’s scarier that way.”
Why Wasn’t John Turturro In The Penguin?
Of course, given the breadth of subject matter of John Turturro’s career, The Penguin is far from the only project he could have (or has) starred in that involves violence against women. In fact, a scene in Severance season 2, that came out later this year, had Turturro do some pretty heavy violence to a woman, leading many to assume this reasoning was a lie. Turturro recently amended his statement about not making a return as Carmine Falcone, chocking it up to something much simpler.
“I had done it already,” Turturro told Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I felt really good doing The Batman, and I didn’t know if I wanted to continue to be in another series. I like to come in, do my thing, and then leave.”
While some report that this claim contradicts what John Turturro said before about declining to return, he did actually say that he “did what he wanted to do” with the role in his first statement to Variety. So it’s more likely that both of these elements factored in to him not wanting to reprise his role as Carmine Falcone in The Penguin, but one took priority over the other in this case.
The Penguin is now streaming on HBO. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe and make sure to stay tuned to our YouTube channel for more content.
