Harley Quinn Season 4 turned Gotham into a no man’s land — an apocalyptic setting ripe for more of Harley’s mayhem. But surprisingly, showrunner Dean Lorey decided to focus Harley Quinn Season 4 on Metropolis instead. Harley and Poison Ivy have been looking for new ways to spice up their lives and their relationship, and the City of Tomorrow hasn’t disappointed. Plus, there’s plenty else happening to keep fans of the Max show entertained.
From an unexpected reunion with Ivy’s former lover Jason Woodrue to King Shark’s children (especially Shaun) causing mayhem of their own, there hasn’t been a shortage of problems to keep one of Gotham’s favorite couples busy. At the center of all the chaos in Metropolis, however, are Lena Luthor and Brainiac — former allies who have since gone their separate ways. Ahead of the Season 5 finale, Lorey spoke with CBR about its initial concept, how the story evolved, and what idea he hopes to spin off into a new series.
CBR: Since her debut in Бэтмен, there have been numerous interpretations of Harley Quinn has seen numerous interpretations, most notably as DC’s answer to Marvel’s Deadpool. What was the most important thing you wanted to capture about her character?
Дин Лори: We wanted to capture her manic-ness and her chaos, but not in a way that that was a terrible thing. We thought, in fact, when we were designing the look of Harley [Quinn] Season 1, we decided that the show is sort of seen through Harley’s eyes, and that’s why, even though we typically see Gotham as being very dark and mysterious and all of that, we wanted it to be bright and colorful, because it’s Harley’s view of life. So we really wanted to sort of celebrate the unexpected nature of Harley.
One thing that really stands out about the show is that Harley’s relationships give the character her depth, despite the comical nature of her stories. What kind of reckoning can you tease regarding Harley and Ivy’s future as a couple during and after Season 5?
With Harley and Ivy, we had made a decision very early on in Season 1 — there’s not a relationship between them. They’re just friends, and it’s because Harley just got over a breakup with the Joker, and we wanted to see her establish herself independently of anybody else. But then for the rest of it, when we started that relationship with them, our core decision was that we weren’t going to play «Will they break up? Won’t they break up?» We just said from the start, they’re going to be together.
They’re together through the whole run of the series, but all relationships are challenged and tested. We wanted people to feel comfortable that we’re not playing the game of «Are they going to split?» They’re not going to split. But we want to see the relationship evolve in the way that real relationships do. So that’s why there have been bumps in the road like there typically are. They start Season 5 in a rut, and they want to bring some new life to their relationship. I think in a lot of ways, they find a way to do that.
Can you share what was your inspiration for Harley Quinn Season 5 story-wise, and why you thought Metropolis was the perfect place for Harley and Ivy to continue their mayhem and growth as a couple?
We wanted to start with a change of location, because we thought we’d been in Gotham for a pretty long time. If we’re starting with our characters in a rut, that’s what you do often — let’s go take a vacation. Let’s get out of our comfort zone.
Given what we were talking about with Harley earlier — that she’s an agent of chaos — we thought that Metropolis would be a perfect place to drop her, particularly if we were playing Metropolis like the perfect city. It’s the shining city in comparison to Gotham, and Harley in that environment could only cause trouble. That seemed like that would be fun.
It also spoke to our desire to bring Brainiac in as the big bad, in that he is looking to create perfection everywhere that he goes, which is a subjective thing. But he thinks of it objectively — that he knows what perfection is. Putting Harley in that seemingly perfect environment with a guy who just wants perfection was a super-strong basis [for] the season.
Brainiac has been given significant focus in Season 5 and is presented as a much more tragic villain than in the comics. Not only did he lose his family on Colu, but he even lost his pet monkey Koko. Can you shed more light on why he’s so fascinated by humanity’s alarmingly low-level intelligence, and how he plans to correct this major imperfection?
Episode 4 was written by Katie Rich, who did a wonderful job with Brainiac’s backstory — it is a tragic backstory. Initially, I don’t think we were thinking that it was going to be that way. I just think he was all about order, Harley’s about chaos. We thought that would be good. But then, as we dug into it and started saying, «Well, why is it all about order? What about it?» And so as we started playing with that, we realized that we were falling in love with Brainiac.
Much like Mr. Freeze, he has sort of a tragic backstory… We became really interested in seeing not just how Brainiac influences the events of Metropolis, but how Harley might influence Brainiac and how Harley might in fact be the one thing that Brainiac has never come across before — just a pure agent of chaos. That started giving us a shape for the season, and we were excited to tell that story.
Harley Quinn‘s version of Brainiac is fully embracing his Silver Age roots, right down to keeping an alien pet monkey. Which Silver Age and modern stories served as the inspiration for your take on Brainiac, and can fans expect to see Koko miraculously come back to life somehow?
Koko came directly from the comics, as did a lot of this. We reinvented it for our show. I have a soft spot in my heart for Koko, just because of how much Brainiac loves and depends on him, and how it develops is, to me, very touching.
How does Brainiac’s obsession with perfection align with Lena Luthor’s plans? There might be some common ground there, but at the same time, they have very diverging motivations.
Lena does have a plan. She’s a Luthor at heart. And Brainiac, she believes, can help her move that plan forward. So there’s a lot of drama and family drama that’s about to come your way.
Lena is dating Bruce Wayne in Harley Quinn Season 5. His son Damien is dating the Joker’s adopted daughter. Barbara Gordon is now Oracle. Dick Grayson was resurrected as Red X. And of course, Alfred became the Macaroni villain. Will the Batfamily have a chance to come back together this season, and could the absent Superman have a role in that?
I’m all about the Macaroni. That’s one of the very few characters that we actually created whole cloth for Harley Quinn. Frank the plant is another one. But I would be very happy to do the Macaroni series. Just because I like that.
[Superman’s] alone with his thoughts right now. I don’t think the Batfamily is super present in the second half of the season. It’s a little more focused on Harley and Ivy, and Brainiac and the Luthors. Like most of our seasons, it gets more pointed and focused as we get to the end, and all things are now starting to dovetail.
The Harley Quinn Season 5 finale streams March 20, 2025 on Max.
