DC Studios reportedly canceled Season 2 of its highest-rated series, a show fans begged the studio to continue for nearly two years. James Gunn and Peter Safran earned plenty of critical goodwill since taking over DC’s film and television output in late 2022, with several of its shows scoring above 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. One series outranks everything else in the catalog, and its future fueled endless debate among executives, insiders, and the cast itself.
Industry insider Jeff Sneider revealed that The Penguin is not moving ahead with Season 2 at DC Studios and HBO. The report comes roughly a month after a Writers Guild of America listing for the second season convinced many fans that the Colin Farrell crime drama would return after all.
Sneider shared the update on X, reporting that the Batman spinoff will not continue past its original eight episodes. Since no studio confirmed the news, fans should treat it with some caution. Still, the report aligns with how HBO Max views the series. The network submitted The Penguin to the 2025 Emmys as a limited series, a category reserved for shows that tell a complete story in a single season.
The cancellation would close the book on the best-reviewed title DC Studios ever released. The Penguin’s 95 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes ties Creature Commandos for the studio’s top mark, but the crime drama wins every tiebreaker. It's 8.6 rating on IMDb beats Creature Commandos’ 7.8 and Peacemaker’s 8.2, while its 85 percent audience score clears the animated series’ 78 percent by a comfortable margin.
Awards voters also agreed with the critics. The series collected 24 Emmy nominations, and Cristin Milioti won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series for playing Sofia Falcone. Farrell added a Golden Globe for his transformation into Gotham crime boss Oz Cobb.
Lauren LeFranc, who created the show as a spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, told The Direct in November 2024 that any continuation hinged on one condition, insisting the creative team would need "to feel like we can top ourselves."
Farrell sounded even less convinced while speaking with Variety at the SAG Awards in early 2025. The actor admitted he feared a follow-up could turn into "a diluted version" of the original:
"I don’t want it. I don’t not want it. We all left it in the ring in those eight hours. I would hate to, just because of a quote-unquote success, have to go again and for it to be a diluted version of what people seem to feel it is, majoritively."
Mixed signals kept coming all the same. HBO content chief Casey Bloys called a renewal "certainly complicated" earlier this year, pointing to Farrell’s packed film slate. This new report further dampens all hopes fans of the show had for a Season 2.
Does The Penguin Need a Second Season?
More episodes for The Penguin sounds good to fans, and who can blame them? Season 1 was one of the best superhero projects of the past decade. But is it the best direction for the show, though? LeFranc conceived The Penguin as a limited series, an eight-hour bridge between The Batman and its 2027 sequel, and she gave it an ending with real finality. Oz murdered Victor Aguilar, the young driver who believed in him, then seized Gotham’s underworld while Sofia Falcone went back to Arkham.
The finale cuts so deep because Oz sacrifices every human connection on his way up. A renewal would face an ugly choice, either softening those consequences or rerunning the same climb with weaker stakes.
The story also continues where Reeves always intended: on the big screen. Farrell returns as Oz in The Batman Part II, which arrives in theaters on October 1, 2027, and the director repeatedly described the series as a launchpad for the character’s role in the sequel.
Forcing more television out of a finished story risks cheapening one of DC’s finest shows. A single great season serves this tale far better than stretching it further. Although some DC fans won’t be happy, The Penguin getting to stay complete is a good thing.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
