Yesterday we received the official news that the animated series “Harley Quinn” was renewed for a third season, after discussions about the budget of the same, together with the internal restructuring due to DC Universe-HBO Max. Not 24 hours have passed and we already have the first comments from showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern about what the new episodes have in store for us.
It does not seem that they have completely defined everything that is going to be told in the season but there are some clear ideas, among them, delving into the origins of Poison Ivy and Gordon’s problems with the police:
I think we’re going to see Gordon deal with his, how to say, his low approval in Gotham and the low approval of the Gotham police department, ”Halpern says. I think we’re going to dive a little deeper into Ivy’s life and then into the story. I think we are going to do that. I think those are the only two things we’ve accomplished so far in our preliminary discussions that were like, ‘Yeah, I want to do those things.
The relationship between Harley and Poison Ivy has taken a step forward, and who could also have news in this regard could be Kite Man, who we know was there in the middle because of his relationship with Poison Ivy. It will no longer interfere with the relationship between the two, but they assure that they do not want to take him out of the way, they want him to continue being present and even give him a new girlfriend.
I’ll say one of the things we talked about was Kite Man, even though he’s not the third party anymore, or whatever you want to call him, he poses no threat to Ivy and Harley. But we don’t want to completely erase it from the table.
That being said, we want to give him some kind of victory and you know… who is he dating now? Do you have a girlfriend out of spite? Is your girlfriend out of spite someone who also has powers similar to yours? And if someone like Golden Glider is the person Kite Man ends up with, we want to see him happy and in a relationship sometime in season three. So we’ve been talking about it.
In this matter of relationships, they want to continue delving into this courtship between Harley and Poison Ivy, especially because it is very different from all the previous ones they have had.
That is the most important thing for us. What we have preliminarily discussed is the idea that these two characters have had many toxic relationships in their past. Although Ivy and Kite Man weren’t toxic, it wasn’t an egalitarian relationship, you know? He loved her much more than she loved him. So this is the first time that both of them are going to have a relationship where they have affection for each other. They have a lot of responsibility. So I think, ‘What is it like to be in a good relationship after having been in bad relationships with abusive people?’ it’s a great theme that we want to play with.
The other thing I think you might say is, we love Doctor Psycho, we love Tony Hale, we want Doctor Psycho to come back. But obviously, after what happened in season two, making him part of the team still seems like a failure. Finding a way to keep incorporating it into the stories, and if it’s someone who will be like Hannibal Lecter’s character, like some kind of dark mentor behind bars to Harley and Ivy as they navigate the story of season three, was a thought that we had. So yeah, we want it to go back into history.
In this line of ending some of the pieces on the board, the series has made it clear that they are open to killing characters if necessary, but has explained that there are a villain who could never be killed :
We’ll kill just about any character that’s not Harley or Ivy, ”Halpern tells EW. But we will never kill Bane.
Finally, it must be said that yesterday’s official announcement did not give dates, but the pair of showrunners did say in this interview that the new season may not arrive until the end of 2021.
That would be the earliest I could see, ”Halpern says of a late 2021 release. Maybe not, I don’t know… I think Jen Coyle, our head of animation could answer that much better.
We were aiming for the end of 2021 when there was a first indication that the third season could be a reality – adds Schumacker -. These conversations that were happening and that were well above our salary have been very extensive.
We don’t know all the details, but we know it has been an ongoing conversation. It has been very difficult not to go into details but at the same time be optimistic, because there are a lot of people who contact us regularly, just wanting to know if there is going to be a third season, and all we can say so far is: ‘Have faith in which we feel good ‘, which was the truth, but never… until Wednesday, the deal was not done. But I think what Justin is saying is that the earliest would probably be late 2021.