Gotham’s biggest problem is now going to be giving Superman mallet-sized headaches. In the first trailer for the fifth season of Max Original Harley Quinn, the titular queen of mischief (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) have left the grimy streets of Gotham and make their way to Metropolis in a Batman/Superman mashup that’s perfect for kicking off 2025.
In the trailer, the worlds of the greatest detective and Krypton’s greatest orphan merge with Quinn at the center of it all. Joker (Alan Tudyk) asks Superman to save the day, Bane (James Adomian) wars against AI robots in Metropolis, and all of them are in the way of whatever evil plan Superman villain Brainiac (Stephen Fry) has cooked up. According to Max’s synopsis of the season, “Harley and Ivy discover that something sinister is at play” in Metropolis when they arrive, and they can count Lex Luthor (Giancarlo Esposito) and his sister Lena Luthor (Aisha Tyler) as threats, along with Brainiac.
This season is set to premiere on January 16, 2025, and comes after Harley Quinn’s pocket of the DC animated universe expanded this year with its first spin-off series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah! The show features the comedic, endearingly ill-fortuned character who, on Harley Quinn, was the title character’s ex-fiance and is voiced by Fresh Off The Boat’s Matt Oberg. In a November interview with ScreenRant, executive producer and writer Dean Lorey hinted at another possible spin-off from what he calls the Harleyverse:
“Well, I’m all in on the Harleyverse. There’s a show that I am hoping to be able to announce somewhat soon, that is in the Harleyverse that I’m very excited about.”
I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing King Shark (Ron Funches) be a lovable giant getting himself out of trouble by hacking into anything with a computer chip, and maybe assuming the royal duties of his underwater kingdom. Or, we could wash away the stain Joker: Folie à Deux left in our eyes by letting Alan Tudyk have his own show as the homicidal trickster. Whether these spin-offs happen or not, it’s good to know we won’t have to wait long for the center of the Harleyverse to return and get back to serving us murder with a smile.