Harley Quinn showrunners promise they are “never going” to break up Harley and Poison Ivy in the HBO Max animated series. (YouTube/HBO Max)
Harley Quinn showrunners have vowed that Harley and Poison Ivy “will never break up” as long as they’re in charge of the HBO Max series.
Patrick Schumacker, showrunner on the animated show, explained during an interview with AV Club that the series won’t feature a Harley and the Joker romance, despite some whines from fans. Instead, Schumacker said the focus was all on the notorious villain’s relation with Poison Ivy.
“We still have the occasional fan reaction of ‘I don’t like Harley and Ivy together. She should get back with the Joker’, which we’re never going to do,” Schumacher said.
“Harley and Ivy will never break up in the series as long as we have a say. That’s something that we never want to touch again.”
Justin Halpern echoed Schumacker’s declaration while speaking with SYFY Wire, pledging that the Harley-Ivy relationship will never die in the series.
“We’re never going to break them up in the show,” Halpern said. “Harley will never backslide with the Joker. They will go through… they will navigate rocky waters, but they’ll always be solid.”
The first season of the HBO Max series focused on Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) starting afresh and making a name for herself after leaving the Joker (Alan Tudyk). She attempted to prove herself as a competent villain and formed a deadly crew with Poison Ivy (Lake Bell).
The supervillains’ queer romance was the driving narrative for the second season of Harley Quinn, and the pair shared a romantic kiss in one episode.
The third season picked straight up after the end of the previous series as the pair are at the tail end of their unofficial honeymoon – the “Eat, Bang, Kill Tour”. Their relationship is tested as they attempt to grow their villain careers, fight new foes and encounter old enemies.
Halpern told AV Club that the romance between Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy was “always a place” the showrunners “wanted to get to”, but they wanted to make sure they were “telling a story first”.
“How is Harley figuring out her own identity?” Halpern said. “What sort of self-discovery is she doing after this relationship with the Joker, right?”
He continued: “And so if you just had her jump right back into another relationship right after that, because the fans are like, ‘Why aren’t they together right away?’…would you want that?
“This person is so f*****d up and just coming out of a terrible relationship. When have you ever in the history of human beings seen someone leave a terrible relationship that they’ve had for a really long time and instantly make the next relationship work perfectly?
“It doesn’t happen a lot. So we wanted to sort of taking our time with that.”
The first three episodes of Harley Quinn season three are currently streaming on HBO Max.