Harley Quinn Won’t Return Until At Least Late 2021

It official! After months of being unsure of the series’ fate, HBO Max has picked up Harley Quinn for a third season. Showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern have confirmed they’re returning to the beloved animated series alongside cast members Kaley Cuoco (Harley), Lake Bell (Poison Ivy), and the rest of Harley’s gang. While we’re thrilled by this great news, but we’re also a little bummed to report that it’s going to be a while before season three graces our screens. During ComicBook.com’s recent chat with the showrunners, they revealed the show probably won’t come back until at lease late 2021.

“That would be the earliest I could see,” Halpern said of a late 2021 premiere. “I mean, maybe not, I don’t know… I think Jen Coyle, our head of animation could probably answer that a lot better.”

“We were aiming for late 2021 all the way back in like the spring when there was first an inkling that a season three could be a reality,” Schumacker added. “These conversations that were happening that were sort of well above our pay grade have been going… it had been very extensive.”

“We don’t know all the details of them, but we know it’s been an ongoing conversation. It’s been very difficult to be vague online while also being optimistic,” Schumacker added. “Because there’s a ton of people out there that contact us on the regular, just wanting to know like, ‘Is there going to be season three?’ and all we can kind of say up until now is, ‘Keep the faith that we feel pretty good about it,’ which was the truth, but we never… up until [Wednesday], the deal was not done. But I think what Justin is saying it’s probably at the earliest late 2021.”

During these uncertain times, shows that had already been renewed are getting canceled due to the pandemic, so we’re going to be grateful Harley Quinn is coming back at all and be patient!

During a recent interview with SYFY, Halpern confirmed that if the show continues, they won’t break up Harley and Ivy.

“When we were talking about where a third season could go, the first thing we both said is, ‘We don’t want to do a third season where it feels like the stakes are [whether] Harley and Ivy stay together.’ It’s much more interesting to do a show about how you navigate these very different personalities being in a relationship. And what are the fun things that can come out of that? What are the outside influences that can make that relationship tough but without the stakes being, ‘Are they going to break up? Are they not?’ So yeah, if there’s a third season, which I hope there will be, the stakes will not be, ‘Are Harley and Ivy going to stay together?’ They’re a couple.”

The first two seasons of Harley Quinn are currently streaming on HBO Max and DC Universe.