During an interview with Variety, Harley Quinn co-creator and executive producer Justin Halpern revealed that DC removed a sex act featuring Batman and Catwoman during the development of HBO Max’s adult animated series’ upcoming third season.
“It’s incredibly gratifying and free to be using characters that are considered villains because you just have so much more leeway,” said Halpern. “A perfect example of that is in this third season of Harley [when] we had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, ‘You can’t do that. You absolutely cannot do that.’ They’re like, ‘Heroes don’t do that.’ So, we said, ‘Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?’ They were like, ‘No, it’s that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It’s hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.’”
The outlet notes that Halpern and fellow co-creator and executive producer Patrick Schumacker expressed that DC “has been remarkably supportive of their series and has allowed them to push the envelope numerous times.”
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The series follows Harley Quinn‘s adventures after her break with the Joker. The story centers around Harley, Poison Ivy, and other DC castoffs including King Shark, Clayface, and Doctor Psycho as they try to help each other in order to earn a seat at the biggest table in villainy: the Legion of the Doom. Season 2 ended with Harley and Ivy finally getting together, following Ivy’s failed wedding with Kite Man.
The voice cast includes Big Bang Theory‘s Kaley Cuoco as the titular villain, Lake Bell (Children’s Hospital) as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Clayface & Joker, Ron Funches (Powerless) as King Shark, JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Frank the Plant, Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as Sy Borgman, Wanda Sykes (Black-ish) as Queen of Fables, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) as Lex Luthor, Natalie Morales (Bojack Horseman), Jim Rash (Mike Tyson Mysteries) as Riddler, Diedrich Bader (Veep) as Batman, Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep) as Dr. Psycho, Chris Meloni (Happy!) as Commissioner Gordon, Rahul Kohli (iZombie) as Scarecrow, Sanaa Lathan (The Twilight Zone) as Catwoman, Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman and Jacob Tremblay as Robin.
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Based on the DC character created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, Harley Quinn is created and executive produced by Justin Halpern, Schumacker, and Dean Lorey. In addition to starring, Cuoco is also an executive producer through her Yes, Norman Productions.
