Since its premiere late last year, one question fans of DC Universe's Harley Quinn animated series have had is whether or not the show would commit to the idea of Harley and Poison Ivy being romantically linked. The show definitely teased the possibility of a relationship between the two, which has often been flirted with across various other pieces of DC media. After previously taking a more coy approach to the topic, Harley Quinn showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker have confirmed that Harley and Ivy's friendship does, in fact, turn romantic in Season 2.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Halpern and Schumacker were asked if Harley and Ivy's mostly platonic relationship would turn romantic in Season 2 with Harley's ex-boyfriend, the Joker, (seemingly) out of the picture. "I don't want to say that the Joker’s completely gone in season 2," said Schumacker. "He'll appear. We sort of set up at the end of Season 1 that he's alive, but maybe not the version of the Joker that we're used to. But to go back to Harley and Ivy, I think over time the fandom has maybe chipped away at my ability to keep my mouth shut about where this is going. In recent times, my own feeling of wanting to give people something to hope for means I have let slip a few things on social media. Their relationship definitely takes a romantic turn."
"We thought through this season and that relationship before the show had come out," added Halpern. "I think the benefit of that is we didn't feel all of the pressure to get them together as quickly as possible, because no one really even knew what was going to be in the show. If we had released Season 1 and then started working on Season 2, we would've been feeling a lot of pressure to make that happen. We didn't, so all that said, we really tried to take our time in the same way we took our time in Season 1. 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?'"
Schumacker went on to describe the process as "very messy. As Harley has experienced, and as Ivy may or may not experience, you can easily wind up with the wrong person for you. Even in the case of Ivy and Kite Man, everyone’s well-intentioned, everyone cares for each other, but maybe there are still lingering feelings outside of that relationship that are quite meaningful and life-changing." He then elaborated on Halpern's comments regarding the production timeline, explaining that all 26 episodes that make up Season 1 and Season 2 had been written in February of 2019 -- nine months before the show's Season 1 premiere.
"We were removed from that glass house, I guess, with people looking at us as we're doing it," said Schumacker. "Just like we wanted to start with Harley as a criminal and then maybe over a long period of time start exploring some of the antihero stuff that’s in the comics now, we wanted to really slow-drip the evolution of Harley’s relationship with Ivy. It did exist, as you said, in little hints. At one point in the comics it was very clear and now we're not so sure, but we're very sure in the show. You'll see."
Halpern concluded his thoughts by explaining, "This is how I’ve always responded to the fans: We tried in the show to make everything feel like it lives in a gray area, because Harley lives in a gray area. So this is not to say that we have definite closure in that relationship. We come to a place that’s very clear, but our point is that life's messy." He continued, "You don’t get black-and-white things very often. Ivy's dating Kite Man. Kite Man's not a bad guy, but maybe not the right guy for her. So when we're making story moves, we’re thinking, how does this affect Kite Man? How does this affect the crew? We wanted it to be messy, not clean, kind of painful, but ultimately getting to a good place."
DC Universe's Harley Quinn stars Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Diedrich Bader, Alan Tudyk, Rahul Kohli, Christopher Meloni, Tony Hale, Ron Funches, Wanda Sykes, Natalie Morales, Jim Rash, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Alexander and J.B. Smoove. New episodes air on Fridays.