Cristin Milioti will join a prosthetic-clad Colin Farrell in HBO Max's The Penguin

The Batman spinoff marks a return to HBO Max for Cristin Milioti, who led the now-defunct series Made For Love

By Hattie Lindert  |  October 31, 2022 | 7:56pm
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Cristin Milioti will join a prosthetic-clad Colin Farrell in HBO Max's The Penguin
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Cristin Milioti and Colin Farrell Image: The A.V. Club

Enough of all that tropical vacation craziness—Cristin Milioti is officially setting up shop in Gotham City. The actor has joined the cast of HBO Max’s The Penguin, per Variety, a spinoff of The Batman centered around Colin Farrell’s titular villain. First ordered to series in March, Lauren LeFranc will serve as The Penguin’s showrunner, writer, and executive producer. The Batman director Matt Reeves will also executive produce.

Although details for The Penguin remain heavily under wraps, Variety reports that the spinoff takes place in the immediate aftermath of The Batman, with Gotham still underwater. Milioti will join the cast as Sofia Falcone, the daughter of Gotham mob boss Carmine Falcone (played by John Turturro in The Batman.) The Penguin was Carmine’s right-hand man—now, he’s in competition with Sofia for control of the city.

Milioti is the second actor to step into Sofia’s substantial shoes. The character, first introduced in comic form in the 1990s, is small but mighty, and the main foil to one of Batman’s most infamous villains. Sofia was previously portrayed by Crystal Reed in the Fox series Gotham.

The series marks a return to HBO Max for Milioti, who led the series Made For Love for two seasons. The futuristic black comedy was canceled in 2022 following Warner Media’s merger with Discovery, Inc., and has since made moves away from original dramatic programming.

Despite the aforementioned shift, HBO Max certainly isn’t making a move away from Batman-based programming: The Penguin is reportedly one of three spinoffs in the works at the streamer. Antonio Campos is set to direct a series set in Arkham Asylum, and another series focused on the Gotham Police Department also remains in development. None of the three planned series’ have official release dates as of yet.

 
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