While speaking with Variety about his new movie The Room Next Door (which will open wide in the United States early on in the 2025 movies schedule ), Turturro briefly mentioned that he didn’t feel like returning for The Penguin because he didn’t care for the subject matter involved. In his words:

The successful series, which was developed by Lauren LeFranc and produced by Reeves, is set two weeks after the end of The Batman, in which Cobb plays the Falcone and Maroni families off against each other in a power grab following the death of mob leader Carmine Falcone.

John Turturro said he decided not to return as Carmine Falcone in "The Penguin" as there's "a lot of violence towards women, and that's not my thing."