Harley Quinn Showrunner Teases How Poison Ivy Will Affect Harley’s Criminal Career

Season Two, Episode Two of DC Universe’s Harley Quinn drops on the streaming service today and follows Harley and Poison Ivy as they attempt to infiltrate a college overrun by the Riddler. Recently, the series’ executive producers, Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern, had a chat with ComicBook’s JK Schmidt about the new season and revealed everything from why an iconic Batman villain had to die to who they’d like to have on the show. The showrunners have also been very open about Harley’s relationship with Ivy, and that the show is working towards a romance. During their interview with ComicBook, they explained how the Harlivy relationship might affect Harley’s criminal career.

“I think the ultimate goal for season one was to show Harley… what Harley would do if she were to extricate herself from the relationship with The Joker that we are all familiar with. And we just wanted to focus season one on Harley’s career and Harley’s rise through the ranks of Gotham’s criminal underbelly. Getting, essentially, called up by the Yankees of super-villainy in the Legion of Doom and by the end of it, being on top and taking down her ex-lover, ex quote, unquote, boss. So with season two and Harley having shored up that element of her identity, it allowed us to explore, in season two, her relationship with Ivy and the mess that will become when she starts to have feelings for her. All the while, continuing doing what Harley is meant to do, which is crimes,” they revealed.

In a recent interview with Geeks WorldWide, Halpern talked about why the characters didn’t get together in season one. “We have caught a lot of heat for not having them together right away, and I get it, but our thinking was we didn’t want Harley to jump right back into another relationship when she was on a journey for self-discovery. That felt like selling out her character,” he explained. “And for Ivy, we felt like it was important for our version of the character, who has a bit of social anxiety and neuroses and scars from her life (we get into that more in upcoming eps), to operate from that place at first. When you are emotionally hurt and haven’t dealt with your issues, you don’t always pick the best partner for you. In fact, most of the time you pick the wrong one. So we felt like both of these characters needed to go through some things emotionally, and grow as people before they would be in a place where they could really and truly experience a loving relationship and make it work.”

The entire first season of Harley Quinn is now available to stream on DC Universe and new episodes of season two drop on Fridays.