Since The Penguin first aired on HBO Max, it has done many things that have drawn praise from fans and critics alike. Despite being a series based on a Batman villain, it has managed to forge its path in a way that’s even managed to make Oswald Cobblepot (now Oz Cobb) a sympathetic figure. And he’s not the only one.

Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone has become a kind of hero to fans of the show because of how Lauren Lefranc has developed her character. There are some who no doubt like her more than the main character of The Penguin precisely because of the way they’ve managed to make her someone for whom people can truly understand and feel sorry. And it appears that at least part of the reason that Sofia is such a likable character is that she is actually based on a real person. And that person seems like she’s the type who also engenders pity and the desire to root for her. Or at least she did.

The Forgotten Kennedy

While there are certainly aspects of the comic book version of Sofia Falcone, The Penguin has made some important changes to the character that Milioti plays. Chief among them is that while she’s still referred to as The Hangman by some of the associates of the Falcone family, that isn’t who she really is. In fact, she was falsely accused of murdering several women as a cover for her father.

Instead, in turning Sofia Falcone from someone who was thought to be The Hangman to an innocent victim of her family who is sent away to a mental institution, The Penguin channeled someone that Lefranc apparently has an emotional connection with. She says that Falcone is at least loosely based on the woman who is often referred to as “the forgotten Kennedy,” in Rosemary Kennedy.

Creator/Showrunner
Lauren LeFranc

Stars
Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, and Rhenzy Feliz

Number of Episodes
8

Air Dates
September 19, 2024–November 10, 2024

Streaming On
HBO Max

Rosemary was the oldest sister of John F. Kennedy, and while that family has been studied and talked about and dissected over and over she’s often the one that no one really talked about. And that was by design from the family. Or at least that was by design from the patriarch of the Kennedy clan. At some point as Rosemary grew up, she was deemed difficult by her father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. While some people might have simply tried to deal with her, or cut her off, Joseph went to the next level. He had her lobotomized when she was 23 years old. That procedure left her permanently incapacitated, unable to speak, and institutionalized for over 60 years. While Sofia wasn’t put in Arkham for 60 years, she was apparently in there for a decade and the rest of Rosemary’s story definitely sounds quite a bit like The Penguin‘s version of Sofia Falcone.

These Touches Make The Penguin So Good

Matt Reeves and company have long said that with The Batman and The Penguin, they wanted these larger-than-life characters to seem more realistic and grounded. The Riddler didn’t run around Gotham in bright green spandex, asking everyone he encountered his favorite riddles. The Penguin doesn’t come from the sewers and Sofia Falcone isn’t running around murdering people. And while these characters would be truer to the comic book characters, they evoke more emotional connections to the audience by making them seem like people who might actually exist in the real world.

And while these characters would be truer to the comic book characters, they evoke more emotional connections to the audience by making them seem like people who might actually exist in the real world.

“Matt never wanted to do a straight up adaptation of a comic book,” LeFranc told IndieWire in a recent interview. “It’s fantastic that those stories exist, but I’d like to create new stories. I wanted to create new canon.”

And so, when Lefranc made a new story of Sofia Falcone, she did it based on someone she legitimately felt some guilt towards. Someone who she realized was very similar to the character she wanted to put on television. And the best part was that despite the fact that her story was a little different, it was moldable enough that it really could be something that would blend both Rosemary and Sofia into one person.

“Rosemary was put in a mental institution and given a lobotomy, and then her story ended, her narrative never was told beyond that, which I always found fascinating and tragic and terrible,” LeFranc added. This meant that she was able to draw some rather obvious distinctions between the character that became Sofia Falcone in The Penguin.

It’s clear that The Penguin isn’t trying to do a one-to-one character with Rosemary Kennedy, but it does show how the program has managed to make characters seem like they are in the real world. It makes the show that much better because people can relate to the main characters in one way or another. And of course, the big problem now is that people need to realize that Sofia Falcone is not a good person anymore. Nor is Oz Cobb.