In the comics, Alberto Falcone is revealed to be the Holiday Killer in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s classic Batman: The Long Halloween.

However, The Penguin Oz Cobb is seen gunning down Carmine Falcone’s son about 15 minutes into the premiere! The door is now likely closed for Matt Reeves’ adaptation of this cult story, but according to director and executive producer Craig Zobel, Alberto’s death was planned from the start.

“It was always the plan that Alberto would die,” he told Screen Rant. “I would say it was an addition to Colin’s Penguin. You don’t see that so often with Oz in the film because there isn’t as much time, but here we get to see him in a (new) scenario.”

“I think the interesting thing is that Oz is a guy who often puts his foot in it to get people to do things. Some part of his brain makes a hasty decision that forces him to act.”

“That can mean a lot of things, but in this case it’s the terrible decision that drives him to act: He might meet the head of the crime family and then think, ‘Now I have to solve this. Now I have a problem to solve.'”

Zobel added: “But what’s fun and attractive about the show is that you like to see him make a mistake and then see him find his way out of it. Both are charming in a way. Considering he’s a narcissist and a bad person, you still want enough charm to stick with the character and watch him for eight hours.”

Alberto’s death is likely Oz’s first step in taking over Carmine’s criminal empire and there is still the possibility for Reeves to use the Holiday Killer concept in The Batman – Part II.

While Alberto admits to being on the Holiday side, The long Halloween There’s also reason to believe that Two-Face or Gilda Dent were responsible for some, if not all, of the murders. However, based on what we’ve seen so far, Reeves plans to tell largely original stories.

Elsewhere in the interview, Zobel gave a taste of what fans can expect from The Penguin‘s second episode.

“In Episode 2, Oz is still suffering from the weight of the bad decision he made at the beginning of Episode 1. He’s still in a very uncertain situation, trying to cover his tracks and figure out what the next step is going to be.”

“Even though we’ve already met Sofia Falcon, the real introduction to her is in terms of (where) we learn a lot more about her and how she fits into the Falcone family and what her point of view is.”

Read our summary of The Penguin‘s season premiere by clicking here.