Harley Quinn Showrunners Reveal the Only Times DC Comics Told Them “No”

It’s been a big week for DC Universe‘s Harley Quinn as the series’ second season came to an epic close on Friday followed by the news that the show will soon be streaming on HBO Max. While fans of the series are still waiting to hear about a season three renewal, the series’ showrunners have made it clear that they have plans if the show continues. Recently, Patrick Schumacker had a chat with SYFY and talked about the series first two seasons, and revealed the few instances DC told them “no.”

“Oh, it’s so rare that they tell us no,” Schumacker revealed. “I can count on one hand how many times they’ve told us no. And if I had three fingers on that one hand, it would still hold true. In the first season, for instance, we had a moment with Mark, the Gingerbread Man who works for the Queen of Fables in the tax office, who’s from her book. And we had so much more objectionable language coming from him about what he needed to do turning tricks for money under a bridge. And that was one of those things where they were just like, ‘Oh, that’s a little too graphic.’ And we had to change a few words, but that was an example of where we thought for sure that would be an example of a note about something canonically accurate in the DC universe. But no, it was about a gingerbread man cursing. Or talking about fellatio in a very graphic way.”

He added, “So that was one of them. Oh, we had Darkseid show up, and he kills Forager. He was squeezing his head Mortal Kombat-style. And at a certain point, I think it was Lightray [instead], and they were like, ‘No, you can’t kill Lightray.’ And we were like, ‘All right, how about Forager?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah.’ And I still don’t really know the rationale behind it, but that was one of them. But I mean, really, they’ve let us get away with so much.”

One joke the showrunners did get away with this season was poking fun at #ReleaseTheSynderCut fans. Schumacker previously shared that he never thought it would make it into the show’s final cut. The moment features two characters essentially embodying the stereotype of sexist internet trolls and one is wearing a Snyder Cut shirt. “Honestly, I put the shirts in there as an internal joke, and assumed those would never make it into the final cut haha,” Schumacker shared during a live Q&A for the episode. “Ultimately these guys were comedic to me because of how deep their toxic fandom ran, (particularly the one guy). And I don’t think he’s representative of all the Snyder Cut enthusiasts AT ALL. In truth, I had cold feet about keeping the shirts but I’m glad we did at the end of the day, and the Snyder Cut fans’ response has been outstanding. Such great sports!”

Harley Quinn is now streaming on DC Universe.