Development On November 20, 2017, it was announced that the then-unnamed
DC Universe had ordered 26 episodes of
Harley Quinn, a half-hour adult animated action-comedy series created and written by Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Dean Lorey. Executive producers were set to include Halpern, Schumacker, Lorey, and Sam Register with Jennifer Coyle serving as a producer. Production companies involved in the series were slated to consist of Ehsugadee Productions and
Warner Bros. Animation. The first season consists of 13 episodes of the initial 26-episode order. Animation work is provided by NE4U, Digital eMation and Maven Image Platform in South Korea. In June 2018, it was announced that the series would premiere in 2019. In October, it was further mapped as an October 2019 premiere. It was also reported that
Kaley Cuoco would also serve as an executive producer for the series through her production company
Yes, Norman Productions. It was revealed that a second season was produced and consisted of another 13 episodes. In February 2021, series creator Patrick Schumacker announced that they had begun recording season 3. In June 2021, it was revealed that a planned oral sex scene between Catwoman and Batman in season 3 was cut by DC. It was replaced by a scene of Batman not being good at giving Catwoman a foot massage. Schumacker stated the third season was more difficult to produce, but it will be much simpler not having to create two seasons back to back. Halpern has stated in an interview with
Entertainment Weekly that season 3 will explore Harley's reaction to a half healthy relationship with Ivy as well as focusing more on Ivy's backstory as the previous two seasons were mainly focused on Harley. Schumacker said that new writers from the
LGBTQ+ community have been hired because of the direction of season 2 and that it is a priority to diversify the staff for season 3. Schumacker also revealed that Dean Lorey would no longer be available to return as showrunner for season 3 and would be replaced by new co-showrunners Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein alongside him and Justin Halpern. During an interview with
Deadline Hollywood, Schumacker stated that his desire was to open season 3 on "an actual
Zoom, where the GCPD is just being berated by the city of Gotham for their ineptitude". In February 2021, series creator Patrick Schumacker announced that they had begun recording season 3. A comic prequel to season 3 was first released on August 3, 2021, under the title
Harley Quinn: The Animated Series – The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour by Tee Franklin (author), Max Sarin (cover art, penciller, inker), and Marissa Louise (colorist), in which Harley takes Ivy on a honeymoon where they face friends they've betrayed, their own feelings about how season 2 ended, and a few villains and heroes along the way. Commissioner Gordon tries to catch them repeatedly, causing Batman and Batgirl to worry about his sanity. On August 9, 2022, it was announced that a fourth season is in development. On August 31, 2022, HBO Max renewed the series for a fourth season with Sarah Peters promoted to executive producer and showrunner, since Halpern and Schumacker will be busy with
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!. On October 7, 2022, it was reported that the series is getting a holiday special called "Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special" which was released in February 2023. On November 16, 2023, Max renewed the series for a fifth season, for which, Lorey became showrunner again.
People conducted an interview, on March 11, 2025, discussing what a hypothetical season 6 could be like. Executive producer Dean Lorey told
Collider on March 22, 2025 that he hoped that they "stop one season before the wheels fall off," adding that they "have a pretty wonderful idea for what Season 6 would be if we get so lucky" and that they are "excited to continue." He also said that they have "every intention of doing more" and are doing "a lot of work figuring out what that will be." Previously, Lorey said that a sixth season would be "something very different...and...unexpected" and said that they "certainly plan to have more seasons."
Casting Alongside the series order announcement, it was reported that the producers of the series were expected to approach
Margot Robbie, who portrays the character in the
DC Extended Universe (DCEU), to reprise the role; but this was false. In an interview after the season 1 release, Halpern went on record saying Robbie was kept in the loop, but she was never interested in playing the role since she was filming and producing
Birds of Prey at the time. On October 3, 2018, it was announced that Cuoco would voice Harley Quinn and
Lake Bell would voice Poison Ivy. Additional voice actors in the series include
Alan Tudyk as Joker and Clayface,
Tony Hale as Dr. Psycho On July 24, 2019,
Vanessa Marshall revealed to be reprising
Wonder Woman from
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. In February 2020,
Alfred Molina was announced to be voicing
Mr. Freeze. Gunn recorded his lines remotely, as he was directing his DCEU series
Peacemaker in
Vancouver,
Canada, while season 3 was being developed. In December 2024,
Stephen Fry was revealed to be voicing
Brainiac along with
Aisha Tyler as
Lena Luthor.
Music Jefferson Friedman composed the music for the series.
WaterTower Music released the soundtrack album for season 1 on August 21, 2020. The season 2 album was released on the same day.
LGBTQ representation In the
DC Universe,
Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen Quinzel) and
Poison Ivy (Dr. Pamela Isley) started as friends. In the comics, Harley and Ivy would refer to each other as "Peanut" and "Pam-A-Lamb". The writers took notice giving them moments of birthday kisses and taking showers together making their friendship more intimate. It was not until the 2013 Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti's
Harley Quinn comic series where they are shown in a romantic coupling instead of friendship. One critic who reviewed the episode stated that Harley and Ivy's romance was a "slow burn", adding that this love affair could turn into a "more realistic exploration of how it feels to fall in love with a friend or to have an awkward hookup with a workmate". Another reviewer, Sophie Perry, writing for a lesbian lifestyle magazine,
Curve, noted how
queerbaiting has long endured in LGBTQ+ representation, noting how
She-Ra and Harley Quinn both had same-sex kisses, happening within stories which could have turned out to be "typical queerbaiting" but did not. In the Valentine's Day special, Clayface, a member of Harley's villain crew, asks himself how he identifies his sexuality and says that he's fluid. This was after he attempted to go on a date with a man named Jimmy, and fits with his tendency to morph into people of all genders with equal enthusiasm. In season 2, he shifted into a woman named Stephanie and dated a college student named Chad. The third episode of Season 3 brings another queer couple, introducing
Clock King as
The Riddler's boyfriend. Their relationship continues through the series, later getting engaged and then married. In 2021, the series was nominated for a
GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. The series was also nominated for several awards at
Autostraddle's 4th Annual Gay Emmys, in the categories of "Best Episode with LGBTQ+ Themes" for the episode "Something Borrowed," and "Outstanding Animated Series". The trailer for the show's third season, which came out in October 2021, was described as showing that the series is "for the gays". ==Release==