The theatrical sequel to The Batman may still be a ways off, but fans are getting a continuation of in the form of HBO’s The Penguin series. Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb takes center stage as he and his fellow gangsters jockey for power in the chaotic aftermath of The Batman.
Oz’s biggest rival in the new series is Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone, the daughter of the late Carmine Falcone and a woman with as much blood on her hands as anyone in Gotham City. But who is Sofia Falcone, and why is she often referred to as The Hangman? Why is she such an important player in The Penguin? How is the new series radically reinventing this iconic Batman villain? Let’s break down what you need to know about this terrifying crime lord.
Warning: this article has been updated to include spoilers from the first four episodes of The Penguin!
The Penguin Gallery
Who Is Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone?
In Batman’s early days on the job, Gotham City is still under the clutches of old-school mobsters like Carmine Falcone and Salvatore Maroni. Inevitably, Falcone’s reign comes to an end, leaving his heirs and underlings to battle it out for control of the family empire. Carmine’s daughter Sofia is one of those seeking to make a name for herself in a dangerous criminal underworld.
In the comics, Sofia’s story is mainly chronicled in the pages of Batman: The Long Halloween and its sequel, Batman: Dark Victory. The Long Halloween also served as the inspiration for a two-part animated movie adaptation in 2021. The character plays a major role in the TV series Gotham (played by Crystal Reed) as well, manipulating cops and costumed criminals alike in her bid for power. But whether in comics, animation, or live-action, Sofia’s story always ends in violent tragedy. Like so many gangsters before her, her reach ultimately exceeds her grasp.
Now Sofia Falcone is returning to live-action thanks to HBO’s The Penguin series, where she’ll be played by Cristin Milioti.
Sofia Falcone in Batman: The Long Halloween
Sofia Falcone was created by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale and debuted in 1997’s Batman: The Long Halloween #6. The Long Halloween is set early in Bruce Wayne’s costumed career, after the events of Batman: Year One and at a time when most of his major villains like Joker, Scarecrow, Penguin, and Catwoman have begun to plague Gotham City. In this chaotic period, the traditional crime families that control Gotham are struggling to deal with the presence of costumed psychopaths upending the old order. That includes Carmine Falcone, arguably the most powerful man in the city.
As if dealing with the crusading trinity that is Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and Harvey Dent isn’t bad enough, the Falcone family faces a new threat when a mysterious murderer known only as the Holiday Killer begins leaving a trail of bodies across the city, with all killings happening on major holidays. Falcone believes Holiday is a member of a rival crime family, but doubt grows as the killer also targets members of Sal Maroni’s family.
Sofia herself enters the picture when her father arranges her early release from prison. Sofia is tasked with hunting down the elusive Holiday Killer, but she fails to turn up any leads. The killer strikes home when Sofia’s brother Alberto becomes one of their many victims.
The Long Halloween also serves as an origin story for two-Face, as Harvey Dent is horrifically scarred by a vengeful Sal Maroni. Maroni is then murdered by the Holiday Killer, who is finally revealed to be none other than Alberto Falcone himself (having faked his death earlier in the year). But even though Alberto is imprisoned in Arkham, the bloodshed continues as Two-Face takes revenge on the Falcones. Two-Face kills Carmine, and Sofia is left scarred and paralyzed following a tussle with Catwoman.
Batman is haunted by the discovery that there were actually two Holiday Killers all along. But though he believes Dent was the second killer, the truth is that Harvey’s wife Gilda secretly took up the mantle, hoping to punish the men threatening her husband’s life and career.
The fall of the Falone empire continues in the sequel comic Batman: Dark Victory. There, Sofia attempts to take control of the family despite her serious injuries. Gotham is soon plagued by a second serial killer. This killer targets cops connected to Harvey Dent and leaves behind a noose and cryptic clues in the form of Hangman puzzles. Naturally, the killer quickly became known as The Hangman.
Though all signs point to Two-Face being The Hangman, Sofia herself is eventually outed as the killer, with her apparent paralysis being a clever disguise. Sofia even kills her brother Alberto for being weak. In a final confrontation with Two-Face and Batman, Sofia nearly succeeds in earning vengeance for her father’s murder, but Two-Face shoots and kills her instead. With Sofia’s death, the Falcone family’s stranglehold on Gotham finally comes to an end, and a new age of costumed criminals truly begins.
Sofia Falcone In The Penguin
Sofia Falcone has a major part to play in HBO’s The Penguin series, a show that looks to draw more than a little inspiration from The Long Halloween. But at the same time, the show is veering in its own direction with that source material.
The Penguin is set shortly after the events of 2022’s The Batman. In that film, Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight is tasked with hunting down Paul Dano’s Riddler and unraveling a vast conspiracy that links various Gotham City officials and crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Guided by Riddler’s clues, Batman ultimately discovers that Falcone was a GCPD informant who sold out his rival Sal Maroni and used Maroni’s imprisonment to consolidate his grip on the city underworld. Batman also learns his own father Thomas had a history with Falcone, having saved the mobster’s life many years before and turned to him for help in burying an embarrassing family secret.
Falcone is no sooner arrested than he’s shot and killed by the Riddler. Riddler then executes his final master stroke, destroying Gotham’s sea wall and flooding part of the city. Though Batman ultimately saves the life of mayor-elect Bella Reál and countless others, becoming a newfound symbol of hope for his city, the damage has been done. Gotham is in terrible shape, and the death of Carmine Falcone leaves a power vacuum that various opportunistic criminals will rush to fill.
That’s where The Penguin starts. The series follows Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepott as he transitions from “loyal” soldier of the Falcone family to aspiring criminal kingpin. So far, Milioti’s Sofia Falcone has emerged as his chief rival for the throne. Though if we’ve learned anything in the first four episodes of the series, it’s that Sofia’s story isn’t playing out exactly like it did in the comics. This is not a 1:1 adaptation of Batman: The Long Halloween by any stretch.
In The Penguin, Sofia is already a hardened killer who’s earned a reputation as “The Hangman.” As the series opens, she’s recently been released from Arkham Asylum and is a source of fascination and revulsion among Gotham’s upper elite. We learn that Sofia was convicted of murdering seven women, each time strangling them with a hangman's noose.
However, Episode 4 reveals there's much more to that story than meets the eye. That episode suggests that Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) was responsible for the Hangman murders, and may have even murdered his own wife in the same way. Carmine frames his own daughter for the killings when she threatens to expose him. Using his connections, Carmine has Sofia deemed mentally unfit for trial and committed to Arkham.
That episode leaves some room for interpretation, though, as it ends with Sofia poisoning most of the Falcone family while they sleep. If she's capable of that act of mass-murder, who's to say she didn't actually commit the Hangman murders? Did her father truly frame her for his own crimes, or did he simply stop protecting Sofia from herself?
Either way, it's clear is that Sofia carries a great deal of psychological trauma from her mother's death and her ordeal in Arkham, to the point that she wakes up from regular nightmares gasping for breath and clawing at her own neck. The Hangman herself seems to have a fear of being hanged.
It's clear is that Sofia carries a great deal of psychological trauma from her mother's death and her ordeal in Arkham.
Another key difference in the series is that Sofia’s brother Alberto (Michael Zegan) will never have the chance to become the Holiday Killer. Alberto is killed by Oz himself early in the series premiere. Even as Oz schemes his way up the ladder in the Falcone family, he struggles to evade blame for that murder and instead frame others in the family. Oz’s ultimate goal is to take control of Alberto’s secret shipment – a mysterious new substance with the potential to reshape the drug trade in Gotham – and use that resource to propel his way to the top. But to do so, he has to first cozy up with Sofia.
Sofia and Oz briefly forge an alliance in Episode 2, with Oz aiding her in finding a distributor for her new drug, Bliss. Sofia partners with her former driver despite her misgivings, and despite the fact that Oz was the one who turned her into her father in the first place. That alliance proves predictably short-lived, as the two are attacked by the Maroni family and Oz's dirty dealings are exposed. Now Sofia has consolidated her power by killing off her rivals in the Falcone family, and she's no doubt looking for revenge against Oswald Cobb next.
If The Penguin is anything like the comics, the series will end with Sofia and the Falcones losing their grip on power in favor of a new generation of super-criminal. We’ll see Oz battle his way to the top and become the new face of Gotham’s underworld. Only in this grim and gritty DC Universe, he’ll do so without any penguin sidekicks or trick umbrellas.
For more on The Penguin, check out IGN's spoiler-free review of the series and brush up on every DC movie and series in development.
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