Executive producers and showrunners of HBO Max's 'Harley Quinn,' Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern, join Cheddar News to discuss the hit HBO Max series. The duo, who also serve as EPs on 'Abbott Elementary,' chat about the show's success.

Between Bells

Executive Producers of HBO Max's 'Harley Quinn' Talk Season Three

everyone between bells after ending on a high note back in april 2020 the HBO max series, Harley Quinn is set for its third season. Now, fans at san Diego Comic Con late last month saw a sneak peek at the first few episodes during the event. Look at this, you spent the last two years helping me with my stupid and making chili with your ex. Yeah, I also died and was resurrected. Yes exactly. You are an evil villain, you should mold the world to your vision. It's time to focus on what you want Now the D. C. Series stars actor Kaley Cocoa as the title character and she also serves as executive producer of the show alongside our next guest Harley Quinn showrunners, Patrik Schumacher and Justin Halpern and we sat down with the duo all to discuss Patrick Justin great to have you guys here with us Justin I want to start with you, you actually gave fans a sneak peek of season three of Harley Quinn at Comic Con now it's been a while since you guys have gotten to be with fans so what was it like to finally be in person again? Oh man, I think that's the best part of it. It's like you make these things in a vacuum and you have no idea if people are gonna like it or not. And so when you go to Comic Con, that's your first moments where you actually get to watch it with. The only time you get to watch it with a live audience and it's the best Patrick. What I love so much about the show is you guys get to do a lot of things that nobody really else in the Dc universe really does. I mean for our viewers, the very first episode hardly loudly is saying that batman has relationships with bats, which is like so crazy, has D. C. Ever told you guys what you are and can't say sometimes um you know, they give us guidelines. We certainly um you know, in the early days of the show um felt like we were pushing some boundaries and then we, you know, we tested the show at kind of an a Matic form with sort of super fans in like focus groups, right? And the response was so overwhelmingly positive that I think everyone dc included breathed a bit of a sigh of relief and we're like, hey, you know what, maybe you do actually have license to really run with these characters, poke fun at these characters to a certain extent and you know, through the life of the series, which, you know, at this point it's done three seasons, it's a conversation, but but really they have, let us get away with a lot and I think season three, you're gonna see just how much they're willing to let us get away with. Um and our new partners at HBO HBO max, our home network, you know, they were definitely advocates for us pushing the envelope even further. They were big fans of the first two seasons, which are also airing on HBO max, um but they were basically like not broken, don't try and fix it, but if you feel like making it even more Gonzo go for it, I love it. And by the way, batman super fans like me, you know you guys are even taking these characters and making them into relationship to one another. I mean Justin last season, Harley and poison ivy became more than friends and the season ended with the pair committing to one another. So tell us about where their relationship is gonna be headed this season. Well I think for us it was like the idea was you know if they've only, if you've only ever been in really terrible relationships your whole life like Harley has then what happens when you're in a good one, right? Like what like terrible habits do you take from your bad relationship bringing into your good one, that starts to mess you're good relationship. And so that was kind of, our idea was like how do these two people navigate problems when they have really bad habits and also what happens when they start wanting to do different things with their lives, but they still like love each other and that that was kind of where the, the themes were born in this season and Patrick sort of the beauty of this show is how deep the cast of characters goes, I mean bein kite man, the joker, the list goes on and on. We know you're now working on a spinoff series Noonan's which has received a series order at HBO max so tell us a little bit more about this project. Um Yeah so let's see, I don't wanna get in trouble and say too much. Um but um we came to our HBO max had expressed interest in doing a spin off of Harley and they were like hey you know give us a few characters that you'd like to focus on. So I think we hit them up with like three pitches for three completely different show and the one that they really gravitated towards is what the show that we're calling the Harley Quinn spinoff or Noonan's which is the name of the bar that all of the sort of dregs of Gotham, like all the goons, all the, you know the henchmen hang out and it's made an appearance several appearances in the mothership show and Harley Quinn. Um but this one in particular, what I can say is about kite man a character who played a huge role, especially in seasons one and two, but it's Kite man and his new love interest, they basically decided to buy this bar that is in you know financial straits and uh and run it together as a couple. And so um it's sort of being billed as like a cheers for super villains. So we thought it was a great kind of you know background and environment for its kind of like the nexus of all of these you know different wonderful colorful characters from Gotham City coming together organically or just passing through. You know we can have cameos any given episode of characters that we've met in the Harley show or we can introduce new ones and so yeah it's really gonna focus on Kite man and his new girlfriend who you're about to meet in season three. I won't I won't spoil it. Um who who that is but yeah they buy the bar lex Luther is a big kind of antagonistic force in it. Um And uh Bane is gonna be a series regular I can I can say that I think uh and uh and yeah it's just gonna be a lot of fun and and uh and uh yeah it's just a corner of Gotham that we have not fully explored yet Justin I want to talk about your other show, you guys work on your also the E. P. S. Of Abbot Elementary. I was turned onto Abbot Elementary during the pandemic and it was very much my ted Lab so show from the first season where it was this uplifting, really sweet beautiful storyline. The series nominated for several awards including outstanding comedy series, outstanding lead actress in a comedy series as well. Why do you think this show has captured audiences and even critics attention and is doing so well that people have really gravitated to this really positive uplifting program. I think it was a combination of just like I think first and foremost like Quentin Bronson who created the show is our partner in it and he's also the star when we were all talking about it, she's like the first thing I wanna do is make a comedy like I want to make people laugh. That's first and foremost the most important thing and then everything else will kind of trickle down from there. I think it's a hit with audiences because it's a lot of, I think even though it's it's about this sort of like a group of under fun teachers at an underfunded school, I think there's a lot of like relatable feelings that they all go through. Like it hits on that same sort of vibe that the Office does except you know, in the Office they were dealing with paper which no one cares about but in school and you know in Abbott, they're dealing with kids. And I think if that component of like having this workplace comedy but also having it be about something that is generally can be pretty dramatic and being able to like light, be light but also not afraid to touch those sort of more dramatic elements. I think that that combination just really ended up hitting people. Look we've made tons of failed show. So if I sat here and told you, I knew why I'd be lying? Yes, exactly how you write a book for all that. And by the way, Patrick, you guys announced the comic Con Abbot Elementary is getting 22 episodes in season two, No doubt. That is a huge rare move in the broadcast comedy industry at this stage in the game. Because of all the streamers out there, everybody's sort of scaling back on the amount of episodes you guys are actually getting more. How are you sort of working to keep this series competitive to all these other shows out there? Um well, I will say the luxury that we had this season was that abc picked us up for that back order very early on, you know, because it's, I would say obviously it's rare that shows get 22 period in the season, as you, as you mentioned, but oftentimes what happens is, you know, you're either like on the bubble or just, you know, they're unsure what their schedule is gonna look like the network and so it kind of comes down to the wir, so we had asked them, you know, if you do think that you're, there's a chance that you're going to pick us up for a back order, would you let us know by like september so we can like order some strips and get that whole thing figured out because our seasons are while, you know, pretty episodic, you know, there is some sort of mythology to the show or some, some serialization that comes through, particularly with like the relationship between Janine and Gregory played by Quinton Bronson and Tyler James. And so I was just gonna say that you know, we had this gift um of of knowing early on so that we could we could plan it out. And so I think Tyler James, Williams and Quintal were probably very grateful for that knowing like where their characters were gonna go and but especially the writers, All right, thanks to Patrick, shoemaker and Justin Halper and the executive producers and showrunners of HBO max's Harley Quinn and also the executive producers of Abc Abbot Elementary. In the first four episodes of Harley Quinn, season three are now available with new episodes dropping every thursday on HBO max.