‘Harley Quinn’ season 2 will explore romance with Poison Ivy
DC Universe animated series will further Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's feelings for one another
The second season of DC Universe’s Harley Quinn will see its titular antiheroine embarking on a relationship with Poison Ivy.
The R-rated animated series, which premiered last year, follows Harley Quinn after she breaks up with the Joker and branches out to join the Legion of Doom.
Quinn, voiced by Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco, is joined by a crew including Clayface and Doctor Psycho, as well as best friend Poison Ivy, voiced by Lake Bell.
The first season, which wrapped in February, suggested that there was more than friendship between Quinn and Ivy without explicitly confirming it — a choice that showrunner Patrick Schumacker said was deliberate.
Speaking to Britain’s Metro, Schumacker said that a budding romance with Ivy was “always on the table” for Quinn.
“It felt interesting to us or felt like, maybe even important to us, to do it,” he said, adding that the plan had been for the relationship to develop over the course of the show, particularly given its first series opens with a breakup.
“We thought let’s not do it in the first season, because the first season is about Harley just getting out of an abusive relationship,” Schumacker said. “What would that say about the character if the first story that we tell is about her being in a relationship with somebody else? Immediately, just let’s make the first statement about her focusing on her career.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner Justin Halpern said that producing the show’s first two seasons at the same time allowed the team to “take our time” with Quinn’s character development post-Joker.
“I think for us, the first season was about self-discovery: Harley figuring out how to extricate herself from the Joker and become a whole person,” he said. “In the second season we wanted to explore, ‘Now that I’m not bound to this guy and thinking about what he thinks about, what do I actually want? Do I want the responsibility that comes with all the things I may want?'”
He continued: “If you go through a bad breakup, it’s not just like, what’s next? Breakups come in stages. We had the luxury of being able to explore what a bad breakup looks like. In season 2 we were really able to explore, what is it like when you realize you have feelings for your best friend?”
However, Schumacker noted that it will be far from a traditional love story — if it even develops that far at all.
“Harley is not the safe choice,” he told Metro. “Harley is unpredictable and she’s unreliable. She runs off on an adventure at the drop of a hat. During the first season, and much of the second, Ivy is looking for stability.”
“There’s an important episode [coming up] that deals with them, kind of in the fallout of them having to deal with their real feelings of each other,” he then added. “The second season does evolve their relationship, and in quite a meaningful way.”
The second season, which has drawn praise from both critics and fans, will follow Quinn as she tries to break the stranglehold that Riddler, Bane, Penguin, and Two-Face have on New Gotham.
Season two premieres April 3 on streaming service DC Universe. The 13-episode first season is available to stream now.
Watch the season 2 trailer below:
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