Exclusive Interview With ‘Harley Quinn’ Showrunner Justin Halpern

Now that season 2 of Harley Quinn has finished airing and fans are waiting for the third season to be announced, we at The Cinema Spot have decided to (figurately) sit down with showrunner Justin Halpern to talk about the animated series. You can read the interview below:

Emre Kaya (The Cinema Spot): What was the hardest part of working on this show?

Justin Halpern: I would say it’s how long it takes to actually produce an episode. I’m pretty impatient and hate waiting, and animation requires a lot of patience. When we wrote something, I’d want to know as quickly as I could whether it sucked, and sometimes you know in the writers room [that it sucks], but often times you don’t know until you see a version of it put together. And then if it sucks, you have to go back and rewrite it. So that time between “does this suck” and finding out whether it sucks, killlllls me.

TCS: Could you give an example of something that you found out sucked, but only after the episode was produced?

JH: I could give you so many. Let me put it to you this way; the animators on the show are so incredibly good at what they do, and absolutely killed themselves to make the show as good as it can be, that if you get something back from them and you watch it, and it sucks, it’s because the writing sucked. A good example of that was the fourth episode of the show, where the climax is on the Tawny show, and everyone is fighting and shooting one liners at each other. We thought we had nailed it. We… had not. There was no momentum to the scene, no build in terms of story. It was just flat, even though the battle itself was really cool. The animators had done their job. We had not.

TCS: What are some characters and/or locations you would like to introduce in season 3?

JH: Oh man, you know, we haven’t had a ton of conversations yet about what season three would be. I think we want to make sure whoever we add has a unique perspective to put on the show. I think we definitely want to see more of Catwoman and Batgirl. We want to learn more about Ivy and go deeper into her life and history, so you may start to see people from her mythology come in. But honestly, we don’t bring people in unless they provide some interesting perspective. We almost had Power Girl in the first season, because we wanted to do an episode about superhero costumes and how they get designed, and of course, no costume is more discussed than Power Girl’s!

TCS: I am happy to hear that we will get more of Ivy’s backstory in the show. Where do you guys want to take Harley & Ivy in the future of the show? I am assuming that now, their relationship will focus on Ivy more and how she’s dealing with everything?

JH: The one thing we know we DON’T want to do, is have the stakes of the third season be “Will they break up?” They’re not going to break up. That’s not interesting to us. What’s interesting to us is how these two people with a lot of trauma in their past, navigate a healthy relationship where they are on equal footing with their partner. That’s hard! People fuck up and it makes for funny stuff, in our humble opinions.

TCS: I love that you guys managed to get actors like Giancarlo Esposito and Alfred Molina on the show. Are there any other actors or actresses that you would like to have on Harley Quinn?

JH: There are so many performers that we love. We were continually surprised that we would sit in the writers room and think of our first choice, go out to that actor, and they’d say yes. That usually never happens! There are a lot of actors that I think are so funny and would fit right in to the show. I really think Aparna Nancherla is so funny and I would love to work with her. Nathan Fielder is someone I’d love as well. I like adding interesting, grounded voices to the cast because it’s just not at all what you would expect from a show about superheroes.

TCS: What are some funny ideas that were pitched, but ended up not being included in the show?

JH: Well, we had broken an entire episode about how superhero costumes aren’t pragmatic, and we were going to use Power Girl and have her weigh in and help Harley figure out her new look, but then we decided we just wanted Harley to have decided what her new look was going to be by the end of the pilot, so we scratched it. We also tried to break an episode where Darkseid’s niece, Malice Vundabar begins interning for Harley and she’s an incredible pain in the ass. But Harley didn’t look at her resume and see she was Darkseid’s niece, she just liked her outfit, so she hired her. And now they’re stuck with this Gen Z intern who makes fun of them non-stop in the most cutting ways. But again, we couldn’t really figure out what that episode was about for Harley.

TCS: Let’s say Harley Quinn does not get renewed for a third season, but Warner Bros asks you if you’d like to make a similar show about another DC character, would you do it? Which character would you like to create an animated series about besides Harley Quinn?

JH: Yeeesh, if Harley Quinn doesn’t get renewed for a third season, I gotta be honest, I will be crushed. It’s my favorite thing we’ve ever done, and I love the show so much. So in this scenario I’ve probably had a meltdown and sobbed on the phone to an executive and they’re like “Hmmm don’t wanna hire this sobbing person to do anything else for us.” BUT, to entertain your question, I think the two characters we generally talk about are Booster Gold and Lobo. I think there’s something inherently comedic about both, that also has something interesting to say on a dramatic level.

TCS: Well, that executive should #RenewHarleyQuinn!

JH: I agree. We’re an animated show! That’s the only fucking show you can make right now! And we’re not very expensive!

TCS: Do you have any projects coming up besides a potential third season of Harley Quinn? What else can people watch or read, if they are a fan of your work on Harley Quinn?

JH: We have another show in development with Kaley Cuoco attached to play the lead. It’s live-action. If we get to do it, which I’m hopeful we will, I think it’ll be something really fun. Kaley is one of those actors who is insanely successful, and yet, I think, very underrated. She’s got so much range and is a comedic technician. Like, I wish we did a behind-the-scenes video of her in the recording booth; she finds every single little thing to mine from every line. She’s also just the easiest person to work with. I’m also writing a sci-fi novel but that’s probably a year and a half away at the earliest. But I think fans of Harley would really like it.

If you are a fan of Harley Quinn and would like to see a third season, please let Warner Bros and AT&T know. Don’t forget to use the #RenewHarleyQuinn hashtag on social media!