Harley Quinn Bosses Dig Deep on Harley and Ivy's Season 3 Emotional Roadblocks

Later on a 2-twelvemonth hiatus, the adult animated series is finally dorsum with season 3 as it continues to follow the mayhem and madness of Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco). The new episodes see Harley and Poison Ivy (Lake Bong) returning every bit Gotham's new power couple, who, forth with their team of misfit villains -- King Shark (Ron Funches), Clayface (Alan Tudyk), Frank the Plant (JB Smoove) -- strive to become the best version of themselves while also working toward Ivy's want of transforming Gotham into an Eden-like paradise.

With the first three episodes of Harley Quinn flavor 3 now streaming on HBO Max, executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker talk to ET virtually pushing the limits of what they tin can show onscreen, taking the DC Extended Universe's most well-known characters in unexpected directions and getting meta with Suicide Squad filmmaker James Gunn.

[ Warning : Minor spoilers for the get-go three episodes.]

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ET: Let'due south start with the opening of the premiere and that oral sex scene. Were you trying to make up for the fact that you lot had to cutting a similar moment between Batman (Diedrich Bader) and Catwoman (Sanaa Lathan)? How did that come well-nigh?

Justin Halpern: No, information technology wasn't put in because of that. This had been conceived way before that. Nosotros wanted to have an opening scene where people thought similar, "Oh, they're definitely trying to push the envelope…" Nosotros wanted to take everyone's expectations and and so subvert them when yous realize it'due south a porn picture show and not actually Harley and Ivy. And so, that was always in the cards, we knew we wanted a splashy opening scene.

Patrick Schumacker: A lot of people were asking for Harlivy sexual practice scenes. There was a existent fervor for it. So, we thought nosotros'd try and evangelize, but with a petty flake of a misdirect.

Well, if goose egg else, y'all certainly deliver on the sex activity this flavor. At that place is a lot of it throughout, and I was fifty-fifty surprised how far things go. When it comes to moments like that, is there a whole approval process? And exercise you guys feel skilful about what y'all were able to go away with?

JH: It felt pretty practiced. Obviously, there is an blessing procedure, but DC, they're sort of very gritty and serious. Information technology is what people consider DC. But they have been incredibly supportive of the show. And I recollect information technology'due south a bit of a mislabel, because I feel like they let you take a lot more chances than maybe other places. So for us, there was an approval process, merely they were like, "Yeah, become for it," for most of the flavour.

PS: Every time nosotros turn in a draft or a cut, we ship heart medication forth with information technology.

With the Batman-Catwoman thing, non to elevate that out too much, it seemed like there was this rule being like, "Don't necessarily play with some of our characters. You can't necessarily play with sure ideas associated with them." Only then again, information technology does seem like you lot had a lot of liberty to take characters in very unlike directions on this show.

PS: Yes, this flavour, only talking near Batman and Bruce, I think nosotros do some pretty unexpected and maybe unprecedented things with him. I remember his motivations are coming from a place that is inherently approved and still honors the ethos of the character. But the steps that he takes this season, I recall are a fiddling bit out there. And I was really proud that we were able to exercise that in concert with DC and get their blessing to have some fun with that.

That said, I was gonna ask this later, but I'll enquire information technology now. Without giving too much away well-nigh where things cease up, it definitely feels similar you're playing with the roles and tropes when it comes to these characters and who they are. I was curious, why did you guys want to mix things upwards and kind of turn things on their head?

JH: Well, I think we felt like in the first ii seasons that nosotros lived sort of solidly in the villain earth. And when the heroes came in, they were very sort of uptight and we didn't really go too much of a look into their lives. And so, with what we did with Batman this season, we wanted to delve into all of the psyche behind someone who does what he does, right? And and so as well have that inform Harley and how she'south feeling about being a villain or a hero and where she kind of sits on that contend. So, information technology just felt like, "Oh, in this third flavor, let's really dig into cocky-discovery and employ the heroes to practise that, specifically Batman."

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Would you say the theme or the overarching idea of season 3 is self-discovery? Or did you take any other concepts going in that yous wanted to bulldoze the new episodes?

PS: Yeah, I call back cocky-discovery is kind of a bullseye. I think all the seasons of Harley and so far have been pretty focused on identity and different facets of Harley'south identity, specifically. But then this season, we actually wanted to, especially now that she's in a fully committed relationship with Toxicant Ivy, we wanted to explore Ivy'southward identity every bit well.

And so, yeah, this season really concentrates on Ivy's master plan and her embracing her inner-supervillain. And I think she gets pretty much the same amount of existent manor this season every bit Harley does, which is why we decided that in the very first episode when the chief titles come up up that "Poison Ivy" in green neon shows up underneath our traditional Harley logo, just to send the message that this flavour is actually a ii-hander and parallel stories of people in a committed relationship, when dealing with their moral compasses slowly deviating from each other.

Going off of that, I love that this season really stretches beyond Harley's point of view. Like you said, we have Ivy'due south POV. But, in a lot of ways, it really felt like an ensemble bear witness in the fashion that it explores a lot of characters and a lot of points of view.

JH: Thank you for noticing that. I recall nosotros have the luxury of having an amazing vocalism cast who helped create these characters with us. Considering of that, it just felt similar we tin can build out the world and we can spend time with other characters. And y'all're not like, "When are Harley and Ivy coming dorsum onscreen?"

Nosotros used to take this joke when nosotros worked on this bear witness a long fourth dimension agone with William Shatner. And the showrunner joked that when Shatner wasn't onscreen, there should be a little timer in the bottom corner of the screen that says how many minutes until Shatner comes back. And I call back that the nice thing near this show and being able to accept our time to build it is that nosotros've built out these other characters. People seem to really like them, and nosotros feel confident that nosotros can tell interesting, engaging stories with them and not have to have Harley and Ivy in every single scene.

That said, I do have to petition for more of Jim Rash as the Riddler. In that location's only something about his performance that I merely love the character, particularly this season with him and Clockman equally a couple. It was very funny to see him.

JH: Jim is fantastic. I mean, the human is an Oscar winner.

PS: Yeah, he'southward great, and kind of a song chameleon. He probably wouldn't say that, but I volition say that on his behalf because he does a lot of second and third voices on the show as well – and y'all'd never know it's him.

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Obviously, we were introduced to Nightwing early in the flavour with Harvey Guillén doing that voice, and in that location are a number of notable cameos and DC characters that announced subsequently in the season. And I was curious, how do you decide who gets to come through Harley Quinn?

PS: Thankfully, we have quite a few writers on our staff that know a great deal about the DC universe and the who's who of it. Then, yous know, generally based on any plot line we come up up with, nosotros're able to pretty apace assign a guest character. And if nosotros're stuck on one, we have literature sitting on our writers' room table and DC is as well a call abroad.

So, this is just speaking to something in flavor one. Only when we landed on Jason Praxis (Phil LaMarr), that was a character that nosotros were all pretty much unfamiliar with. But we chosen upward DC and we're just basically like, "OK, we need a character who has a ponytail and also might take some electrical powers." And they were like, "Yeah, Jason Praxis." So, it's really whatever all-time serves the story.

There take been times where nosotros've been tempted to create new characters and they'll show up. Like, Cheryl (Lake Bell) is a grapheme that exists only in the show. Merely, it'southward like, there are thousands and thousands of preexisting characters in the DCU, so, what's the point of inventing new characters unless y'all absolutely have to.

So, in the example of Nightwing being a part of this season, what inspired bringing him on? Was that largely because of what you lot guys were doing with Batman?

PS: Yeah, pretty much, especially with Batgirl (Briana Cuoco) and her sort of taking more of a leadership position in the Bat family. We wanted to give her an adversary and we thought that Nightwing would exist a expert ane if nosotros played him a little bit more emo, a trivial bit more brooding and kind of full of himself.

That he would be returning from Bludhaven, ostensibly, because Gotham needs him, or then he says. So he gets to the Batcave and finds out that the ecosystem of the Batcave has changed quite a fleck. At that place's Batgirl, all of a sudden, who is this charlatan who's taking up his locker. So yep, he's but this blowhard graphic symbol who pops in and basically tries to put Batgirl in her place. So, we looked at him as a prissy claiming for Batgirl.

Another affair I love about this season are all the meta jokes, from HBO Max to the Suicide Squad films, and having James Gunn on as himself. What was information technology like getting to work with him and did it take much attempt to go him to lend his voice here?

PS: That was an accented dream. He follows the show. He's a fan of the bear witness. I knew that we needed a big, A-list picture show director in this season to be hemming A Hard Wayne's Gonna Autumn, which is the Thomas Wayne biopic starring Billy Bob Thornton, who voices himself in the titular part of Thomas Wayne.

James and I, nosotros don't really know each other very well at all, but we follow each other on Twitter and I just kind of, shot in the nighttime, sent a DM to him ane day and explained the scenario. And, literally, within xv minutes got a DM dorsum, like, "Yep, I'm in. That sounds cracking. Here'southward my rep's info." And two weeks subsequently, I got to voice direct him remotely.

He was upward in Vancouver shooting Peacemaker, so I got to spend nearly an hour with him knocking out all of his scenes for pretty much the whole season. Information technology was wonderful. And we got to riff a little scrap, do a little chip of improv stuff and gave him alt jokes that were probably also meta. We had a Thanos joke in at that place that didn't make the cut 'cause we idea it was kind of world-breaking. But nosotros had some Roger Corman jokes in there that poked a piffling fun at James' past torso of work.

He was such a good sport and he plain gets the tone of the show. I feel like Peacemaker is kind of a alive-action kindred spirit or spiritual twin, whatsoever y'all wanna telephone call it, to Harley. So, it was great. It was an accented dream come truthful.

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One of the things that drew me into Harley Quinn as a show and I feel like it's gotten even bigger this flavor is the queerness of it all. I was merely curious, for you guys, from the conception of the testify to now, was there a conversation about queering the DC universe and what you wanted to do with that?

JH: Yeah. For us, it was born out of the thought that Harley and Ivy are in love with each other and in a romantic way and not merely similar two friends, and nosotros wanted to explore that. Pat and I are two straight dudes and so, I think had we been left to our own devices, we probably would have explored that not in the all-time way. But we have queer writers on staff who, when we said we wanted to practise this, were like, "All right, well, this is the way we should explore this."

For the states, information technology was like, "OK, great. Let's practice it the correct way." Then from there, it was like, there are certain characters in our show that to us and the writing staff that seemed similar queer characters. And then it was similar, if they are queer characters to united states and it organically comes into the stories, why would we shy abroad from that? Let's simply be explicit. Similar, the Riddler is dating some other human being. That's in our prove and the Riddler is queer. That was how we had e'er sort of seen that character.

And it felt a lot of times in other shows, they were hinting that this grapheme'due south queer, merely they're not gonna do that and they're non gonna actually explicitly say that this person is queer. And in our show, it was just like, this character is queer. And and then, when they're out at The Villys, this queer character volition be with their partner, right?

Information technology just felt similar, let's not shy abroad from anything, and to DC'southward credit, we never got 1 note nearly whether a grapheme's queer or non or similar, "You can't bear witness this or that, whatsoever of that stuff." It was never a give-and-take. We just did it and they were completely supportive of it.

PS: And information technology seems like information technology'due south something that DC is really embracing even on the publishing side of things, also. Like, with Jon Kent and Tim Drake, we are starting to run into openly queer characters in the comics also, which is absurd. It only feels similar it's a existent push for that, which is only a good affair in our volume.

To wrap the states up, I was surprised by a lot of the unexpected turns and fun storytelling choices in season iii. Just I was merely curious, what practise you guys want to tease about the remaining episodes and what fans can look forward to?

JH: I'grand glad you said that y'all were surprised by the turns 'cause we felt like we take some surprising turns coming up. We experience similar nosotros take some existent big swings, big turns. And if you were similar, "I saw those coming," I would've been similar, "Ah, f**k." So, yeah, I don't think people are gonna effigy out who the large bad is until you meet the big bad.

I likewise recollect we show you lot who the big bad is a lot earlier than we unremarkably might prove them. And then we play with that. And there's a twist on why that person is the big bad, So, I'm excited for all of those twists. I'chiliad excited for some of the stuntier episodes.

PS: I think people are gonna be pleased with where we end up this season, knowing that we promised that Harley and Ivy will maintain or will remain in a committed relationship for the life of the serial. I think that'south been the big challenge for united states of america, like, "How practise we organically deliver sort of the trials and tribulations within a relationship between two people whose vocations are peradventure starting to become, at least philosophically, like polar opposites, but they're even so madly in love with each other?" That's been the claiming of this flavour. And if we're lucky enough to motility forward and get another season, it'due south certainly something that we'll exist exploring.

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The first three episodes of Harley Quinn season 3 are now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes debuting weekly through Sept. 15.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Source: https://www.etonline.com/harley-quinn-bosses-on-harlivys-relationship-sex-scenes-and-self-discovery-in-season-3-exclusive

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