Harley Quinn Season 3 - What We Know So Far
The COVID-19 pandemic has put big question marks on the future of just about every TV series you can think of, and the third season of Harley Quinn is no exception. The irreverent animated series that premiered on the DC Universe streaming service in 2019 also had to contend with the news that DC Universe would be rebranding and transitioning away from streaming altogether. Not to mention that season 2's finale felt like it might have been meant as a series conclusion — with lovers Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy speeding away from Jim Gordon and the Gotham PD in a scene that felt lifted right from 1991's Thelma & Louise.
Thankfully, along with most of DC Universe's original content, Harley Quinn weathered the storm. In September 2020 it was confirmed that Gotham's baddest clown-faced girl would be coming back for a third time at bat.
But what exactly does that mean? When will we be able to once again hear Harley, Ivy, their friends — and just about everyone in Gotham — use way more swear words than we're likely to hear come out of them in any other media? Who's coming back and will any of the other heroes or villains of DC's mythos be introduced in Harley Quinn's distinctly derisive point-of-view? We'll tell you all the trustworthy news about the upcoming season so far.
Warning! Spoilers follow for Harley Quinn's first two seasons.
When can we expect Harley and her gang to return?
It's impossible to nail down an exact release date for Harley Quinn's third season at this point. No release date has been announced thus far and pandemic concerns have thrown out all the rule books. However, per Deadline's September 2020 interview with co-showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern, you shouldn't expect to see Harley, Ivy, and the rest of the gang in new stories until the end of 2021 at the absolute earliest.
The show's cast and crew have an easier job this time around in at least one sense. Schumacker told Deadline, "[W]e're not doing two seasons back to back, like we did. That may give us some relief, in the sense that there's not as big of a production load." Regardless, Schumacker called the potential of a late 2021 season 3 premiere "an optimistic guess."
Schumacker also seemed cautiously hopeful that the pandemic wouldn't have too detrimental of an impact on the production: "For me, it's really about interaction with the actors, right? Like, can you go into a recording studio? Can you sit across from them, with the glass in between you? Is everybody comfortable enough to be able to do that?" Schumacker said it's those kinds of important interactions that could suffer if the pandemic doesn't allow for restrictions to be eased, but that he was confident he'd "have enough lead time to work that stuff out."
What voices can we expect to hear in Harley Quinn's third season
As far as what voice talent will or won't return for season 3 of Harley Quinn, there have been no solid reports of any cast members either way. So for the time being we can only assume we'll once again be hearing the series mainstays including Kaley Cuoco as the titular antihero Harley Quinn, Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as the thespian wanna-be Clayface, Ron Funches as the surprisingly civil King Shark, J.B. Smoove as Frank the Plant, Jason Alexander as Sy Borgman, and Christopher Meloni as the single most self-destructive version of Commissioner James Gordon in the history of DC media.
Considering what the co-showrunners have said about the stories they want to tell, it's a good bet we'll once again hear Matt Oberg as Batman's most famous D-lister, Kite Man. Along with the return of Kite Man, Patrick Schumacker made reference to "plenty of other D-listers" they may want to use while speaking to EW, though it seems likely we won't be hearing Alan Tudyk voice one of the kings of Gotham D-listers — the inexplicably arrogant Condiment King — anytime soon. Especially since Frank the Plant eats the villain and his fiancee at the end of season 2.
One A-lister you definitely can expect to hear from is Bane, and hopefully he will once again be voiced by James Adomian. The meekest and most pathetic version of the musclebound bad guy is, according to co-showrunner Justin Halpern, one of the safest characters on Harley Quinn. Halpern assured EW, "We'll kill almost any character that's not Harley or Ivy, but we'll never kill Bane."
Where will Harley Quinn's third season go story-wise?
There's no word on exactly what kind of physical threats Harley and her allies will face in season 3. So far they've had to lock horns with heroes and villains alike, from the Justice League to Darkseid and his brutal armies to a rudely cliquish Legion of Doom. We don't know if they'll be going back to Apokolips or Themyscria, but we do know something about the stories the show's creators want to tell.
The Harley Quinn showrunners have made it clear that they don't intend to break up Harley and Ivy. Addressing whether or not Kite Man would continue to be a threat to their relationship, Schumacker told EW "[Harley and Ivy are] rock solid, they're a couple." Though he did express interest in exploring "where [Kite Man] stands with the end of season 2 and the breakup."
Unsurprisingly, it looks like Harley and Ivy's relationship will be a big focus in season 3. Halpern told EW he wants to explore what it's like for someone like Harley — who before Ivy, had "only ever been in bad relationships with abusive people" — to suddenly find herself as half of a healthy couple.
Halpern told Deadline he's eager to spend some time focusing more on Poison Ivy in the upcoming season. "We spent two years digging into Harley," Halpern explained. "So, I think in this third season, it'd be interesting to flip that, and dig deeper into Ivy and her life, and tell some stories through her point of view."
Both showrunners also told Deadline they're looking forward to exploring exactly what is going so wrong in Gotham City that the police are so inept and why, as Halpern put it, Gotham always comes off like "this total cesspool." In the same interview, Schumacker referenced a tweet of his from June 2020. In response to the real life LAPD and Los Angeles' mayor hosting a Zoom town hall "for Angelenos to come together and voice their criticisms," Schumacker tweeted "Well, I think Harley Season 3 will open with Gothamites on a Zoom screaming obscenities at Commissioner Gordon and his fellow cops."