The Penguin's Rex Calabrese Has a Major Catwoman Connection

The DC Easter egg is more than meets the eye.

By Jenna Anderson

The series premiere of The Penguin makes its debut on HBO and Max this weekend, showcasing a whole new corner of The Batman's universe — and drawing a unique tie to Catwoman. Spoilers for the first episode of The Penguin below! Only look if you want to know! The opening scene of The Penguin shows Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) in a tense meeting with Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), who has already assumed the leadership role of the Falcone crime family following his father Carmine Falcone's (John Turturro) passing. Oz tells Alberto a story that reframed his personal outlook on the reputation crime can have on a city, revealing the legend of a local mobster who was in his childhood neighborhood, Rex Calabrese. Although we do not see Rex in the episode, the reference to him is interesting in the context of the larger DC mythos, as some comic canon confirms him to be the father of Selina Kyle / Catwoman.

Who Is DC's Rex Calabrese?

Created by James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seeley, and Jason Fabok in 2014's Batman Eternal #14, Rex Calabrese was a well-known mobster known as Leo Leone / "The Lion", who was exiled from the Falcone gang and ended up in prison. He eventually becomes a cellmate of Jim Gordon's, and is frequently shown as an adversary of Oz's in the criminal underworld. 

More importantly, it is also established that Rex abandoned his daughter Selina when she was nine years old, leading her to grow up as an orphan through the foster care system. Amid Rex's power grab, he reconnects with Selina and tries to motivate her to become a criminal queenpin of her own. While we know that this exact lore will not fold into The Penguin, as The Batman already extensively confirmed that Zoe Kravitz's Selina is Carmine's illegitimate daughter, it is still an intriguing connection between the franchise's two characters.

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What Is The Penguin About?

The Penguin is the next chapter in The Batman saga from Matt Reeves.The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O'Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

The Penguin premiered on Max on Thursday, September 19th, followed by an HBO premiere on Sunday, September 22nd, with new episodes debuting on both HBO and Max beginning on September 29th.

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