The creator of Max’s Harley Quinn series offered an exciting update for Season 6 of the hit animated series.
Season 5 has genuinely flipped the script on what Harley Quinn usually has to offer for its leading agents of chaos (and even given Bruce Wayne a crazy new girlfriend).
Instead of galavanting in the chaos of Gotham City, these new episodes have seen Harley and Poison Ivy navigating the perfect, shiny skyscrapers of Metropolis.
Not only that, but this season's main villain, Brainiac, is their biggest yet.
There Are Exciting Plans Cooking for a (Hypothetical) Harley Quinn Season 6
"It's Something Very Different, and I Think Unexpected."
The Direct’s Russ Milheim sat down with Harley Quinn co-creator and writer Dean Lorey, where the executive producer gave an exciting tease for a hypothetical Season 6 and discussed the exciting changes found in Season 5.
While Season 6 has not yet been renewed, its story is in early development, and many fans are already wondering what the series can do to raise the bar further.
Good thing for everyone, Lorey confirmed that they've "been talking" about what a Season 6 could look like, and it will be "something very different."
- The Direct: "I was thinking about this, and like, where could Harley Quinn go next? And just inserting her, and like, you know, putting her with Brianiac and getting her in some of these really big ideas, just imagining Harley Quinn and something like Blackest Night, like giving her some of those Green Lantern rings. That would be, that would be a lot of fun. What are your thoughts on those ideas? Has putting her in that Green Lantern mythos been considered at any point yet?"
Dean Lorey: We haven't actually talked about that, and we could do it because, you know, the Harley-Verse is separate from the Canonverse, and we do have, sort of, you know, carte blanche to do what we want. But no, we haven't talked about that yet...
But we have been talking about if we get a Season 6 - and we all certainly hope we do - what that might look like. And I think internally, we're all really excited about what that season would be. And it's something very different, and I think unexpected. So, we do have some thoughts for it.
- The Direct: "What's her next vacation? Is she going to go to Coast City before Parallax destroys, and then over to Central? "
Lorey: I don't know... Maybe what she really need[s] to do is just like, go to Daytona Beach.
Moving Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy to Metropolis
"It Echoed Harley and Ivy's Personal Relationship Need for a Fresh Start..."
- The Direct: "Metropolis was such a fun kind of diversion from the usual norm for Harley. What was one thing that you felt that new setting really opened up the show and allowed you to do in a whole new way."
Dean Lorey: Well, I liked that it echoed Harley and Ivy's personal relationship need for a fresh start, that they found themselves in a rut at the beginning of the season, and I liked that It felt like I'm a sparkling new world, full of opportunity and that allowed us a different character, dynamic than we had really seen from them, where they have a lot of hope for what the future could be, and all of that. So that was a big deal.
And it also was just, honestly, it was fun to play with new toys, the Daily Planet, that whole world... Lena Luther was another one that was really fun. And then we always like pulling apart things like, well, Metropolis compared to Gotham is the shining city on the hill, sort of.
And why is it that? Why is it so good there and so shitty and Gotham? And then, what questions does that pose? How did it get to be that way and all of that? So, you know, just the choice of setting opened up so many good character and sort of dramatic opportunities, and so that's why it ended up that [way]. We were just excited to do it, what's,
Reinventing Brainiac for Harley Quinn Season 5
"Harley's An Agent of Chaos, and Brainiac Is Looking to Create Perfection..."
- The Direct: "I really enjoyed what you guys have done with Brainiac, and I just wanted to talk about how you approach[ed] your take on Brainiac, especially since he's been utilized in so many different ways and so many different stories across various mediums. How did you want to reinvent him for this series?"
Dean Lorey: Well, we were excited to bring him on as sort of the big bad of the show because, thematically, it's a great [choice]. You're going to Metropolis, and Harley's an agent of chaos, and Brainiac is looking to create perfection, his version of perfection, everywhere he goes.
So, we sort of thought that gives us a great starting place. You know, putting the two of them together will be terrific. And then, as we started to get into the question of, like, Why does he want to create perfection? And we started developing our backstory for him and some of which was taken from the comics, some of which we came up with.
We realized that his backstory was kind of tragic. That he's doing this as a result of losing his family and feeling somewhat culpable, and then that moved him in a different direction for us. We started, you know, I was talking to the writers and saying, he's starting to remind me of Mr. Freeze from Season 1, who naturally, even in the comics, has sort of a tragic backstory.
But, I was like, I'm kind of falling for this guy, and we should maybe honor that and play it honestly. Instead of him being mustache twirly, let's let him go through something. And so it just really evolved naturally.
And then Stephen Fry came on board and brought such depth to it that I never imagined that we'd have. Katie Rich wrote Episode 4, which was sort of the Brianiac's backstory, and I was really thrilled with how that came out. So it all sort of came together.
- The Direct: "[Episode 4] was easily one of my favorite installments in the season. And I was actually going to bring up that episode specifically because watching that reminded me so much of Tom King's Vision comic series, which I love to death. And so I wanted to want to know, was there proper influence from that series while you were tackling that story?"
Lorey: Not so much. I mean, not so much, but it, I guess there's—it's hard not to sort of stumble over similar, you know, ideas and comics... And obviously, Tom King. I love Tom King, so I hope to get to work with him directly.
What Were the Alternates to Brainiac?
Lex Luthor and General Zod Were In the Running.
- The Direct: "Obviously, Brainiac was the choice of the villain for the season. But when you guys were brainstorming, can you tease any other choices that were close, that were almost potentially like, Oh, this is the direction we might want to go, but you chose not to."
Dean Lorey: Well, we talked about Lex [Luthor], which is kind of an obvious choice. We talked about [General] Zod and stuff like that.
But ultimately, the reason that we wanted to go with Brainiac was simply because, one, he was a big character that we've not tackled before, and also just because he is so much the polar opposite of Harley that it just it seemed inevitable that we want to get them together.
- The Direct: "Recently, there was the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game, which, obviously, did not necessarily work out so well. I haven't played it, and I don't know much, so I can't judge the quality, or anything like that, but the main villain is Brainiac. So when something like that happens, and obviously you're developing the show way early on and whatnot, when there is reception and feedback to something as strong as that, how much does that come back onto you, say, when you're working on, you know, this season of Harley Quinn, where Brainiac, is that core focus?
Lorey: Well, it really doesn't affect us. Just because, you know, the Harley-verse is its own thing, and so we tend not to hear about that stuff.
With something like 'Creature Commandos,' which is canon, things like that would be much more significant because in that one, we have to accommodate the actual plans of that universe moving forward.
But it's one of the reasons that Harley is fun to work on because we really aren't bound to like a corporate structure.
Harley Quinn Season 5 is now streaming on Max.
