Why Harley Quinn Season 5 Killed Off THAT Fan-Favorite Character Explained By Showrunner Dean Lorey

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Warning: SPOILERS from Harley Quinn season 5, episode 6.Harley Quinn season 5 is more than halfway through its run, and the beloved DC TV series just put the audience through one of the show"s most heartbreaking twists. Harley Quinn season 5 has been all about change as Harley and Poison Ivy have relocated to Metropolis for a fresh start following the ending of season 4. Harley Quinn episode 6, called "Bottle My Heart," even became the latest superhero property to tackle the musical concept.
Despite the many comedic beats, the latest episode delivered a big shock when fans were forced to bid farewell to one of the show"s long-time characters. To get more answers on what led to this moment, ScreenRant sat down with Harley Quinn showrunner Dean Lorey to break down the tragic loss while also teasing what is lying ahead for the rest of the season. Lorey also elaborated on the introduction of some new Superman players this season, and whether or not the Harleyverse is looking to expand its world with more shows.
Harley Quinn Showrunner Dean Lorey Explains Death Of Fan-Favorite Character "We Need To Take That Away From Ivy"

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After being part of the show since the very beginning, Harley Quinn season 5, episode 6 inflicted a big character death upon the audience as Frank the Plant is suddenly murdered towards the end of the episode. There was no other way to start the interview than to ask the showrunner himself why they decided to take Frank away from the fans, and what led to this extremely emotional death. Lorey stressed, "No one loves Frank more than me, and really all of us, we created Frank. He"s one of the very few characters that we actually created for the show."
For Harley Quinn season 5, Lorey and the writers "wanted to tell the story of Poison Ivy"s origin, and we knew that Frank, at least internally, we knew that Frank was part of that origin. It was what we had sort of created and what we always wanted to do. And really that gave us an opportunity to show the deep love between Ivy and Frank."

And as we talked about where that might go, we thought maybe we need to take that away from Ivy. Maybe we need to let Ivy feel the loss that would come - basically he"s her child. So we sacrificed Frank on the altar of storytelling. However, as we see as the season progresses, Frank may be dead, but there are places to see dead people. So I hope we"ve not said goodbye to him forever.

Why Harley Quinn Season 5 Was The Time To Introduce Lena Luthor "We Were Trying To Explore Family From A Lot Of Different Angles"

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Harley Quinn season 5 served as Aisha Tyler"s DC debut. She brought Lena Luthor to life in the Harleyverse and, while live-action has seen plenty of Lena in the past, Lorey shared that the Harley Quinn creative team had a lot of freedom with her introduction. Lorey stated that Lena"s introduction played into the theme of family, previously seen with Frank and Ivy. "We were trying to explore family from a lot of different angles," the showrunner explained. "And one of those is the brother-sister relationship between Lena and Lex, which comes into play significantly in the second half of the season."
Is there a strand of Luthorness that runs through both of them? That seemed like a fun thing to explore, so it was a good reason for us to involve her.
Despite taking place in Metropolis this season, Harley Quinn set Superman on a surprising path, as the Man of Steel has taken a sabbatical. But was the plan always to have Superman leave in Harley Quinn season 5 or were there perhaps alternative storylines that they wanted to explore? ScreenRant took that question directly to Lorey, who revealed that "we had talked about a lot of different things, and there was one version. It was something that I really wanted to do because it just was so fun [laughs] where I wanted Clayface to be, in a very different version of the season, playing the part of just a regular Joe [that] he turns himself into and he likes to go to the bar where he meets Clark Kent."
The dynamic that Lorey had in mind would have Clayface "and Clark Kent start up this bar friendship, but they"re both pretending to be people that they"re not. I thought that would be a really fun thing to do." However, there were problems with that, as "Superman"s kind of an I-win button, and if you"ve got him around, it really changes the dynamic of the stories that you can tell that he could presumably solve or at least weigh in significantly. We felt like we needed to send him on a sabbatical so that we could play out the story that we wanted to tell."
All About The Rise of Brainiac In The Harleyverse "Stephen Fry Brought Enormous Depth, Gravity, And Emotion To It" Close Lena was not the only big Superman player to enter Harley Quinn season 5, as Stephen Fry brings the villainous Brainiac to life, giving him his latest animated treatment. However, unlike the many iterations that fans have seen in live-action and animated properties, Harley Quinn season 5"s Brainiac was depicted with a very unique angle, by giving him more of a relatable perspective. ScreenRant asked Lorey how they landed on this version of Brainiac as a family man, Lorey explained that the reason they "started with Brainiac [is] because Harley"s an agent of chaos, and we wanted essentially her polar opposite, somebody who is dead set on order. That"s where we initially brought him in."
Lorey elaborated that "we began to talk about what is his backstory for us in our world, we were gravitating to that he had gone through a family tragedy and that"s what led him to this desire to try to make everything perfect, to try to make everything orderly." But as they got further into building this take of Brainiac, Lorey said that "we started seeing him more as a tragic villain and that reminded me of how we dealt with Mr. Freeze in season 2. Even though we used his actual comic book origins, as we started thinking about Brainiac, we fell in love with him, and we decided that we would try to play that thread honestly and truthfully and let it take us where it was going to take us throughout the season."
Lorey hoped that "people are excited and happy with how that relationship develops because it"s a very different take on Brainiac, and Stephen Fry brought enormous depth, gravity, and emotion to it."
What Is Coming Up In The Final Harley Quinn Season 5 Episodes? "We Were Trying To Make You Feel It"

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As the Harley Quinn season 5 finale is approaching, what can fans look forward to with the remaining episodes and how the season closes out? Apparently, heartstrings may be pulled in the remaining weeks for Harley Quinn season 5, as Lorey stated that, "We do some big things. I would say, while it still has all the Harley humor that you would come to expect, it is a more emotional, in some ways, deeper place that we get to than we"ve gotten to before in Harley Quinn." Lorey also shared that "I think it comes, honestly - we weren"t trying to do it cheaply. We were trying to make you feel it."
Will Harley Quinn Season 6 & Potential Spinoffs Happen? "I Have High Hopes That We Will Soon Have Something Great To Announce"

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With only a couple of episodes left of Harley Quinn season 5, many fans are obviously wondering if the show will continue as Max and DC Studios have yet to announce a season 6 renewal. ScreenRant directly asked Lorey if Harley Quinn season 6 is on the table, as the showrunner stressed that "we would love to do it. We very much want to do a season 6 and there [are] some interesting things sort of in the work." However, at the time of when the interview was conducted Lorey didn"t "have anything to announce right now, but I would say that I have high hopes that we will soon have something great to announce."
When ScreenRant spoke with Lorey back in 2024 for Creature Commandos season 1, the Harley Quinn boss had also teased that something in the Harleyverse is in the makings. While he wished he could give any updates on the mysterious spinoff, Lorey stressed "that things always seem to move slower than you want them to move. But everything is moving forward [and] when I have something to announce. I"ll be happy to talk to you then and go into all the details."
While time will tell what the Harley Quinn spinoff will be, ScreenRant also checked in with Lorey about the first offshoot that came out of this franchise, which was the Kite Man: Hell Yeah! series. When asked if there is room for more Kite Man stories in the Harleyverse, Lorey stressed that, "Yeah, there always is!" Lorey also looked back on Kite Man: Hell Yeah! season 1, sharing that, "I wasn"t 100% sure we were going to figure out what to do with Kite Man in season 1 because we sat down and said, "Okay, let"s do this. Let"s put Kite Man up against the biggest, most powerful villain in the DC Universe, and see what he might possibly be able to do against Darkseid!""
But once Lorey and the team "committed to that and then we were like, "I don"t know, what could he do against Darkseid?"," it became about finding "ourselves the biggest challenge we could come up with and then trying to find an interesting way to resolve it." While Kite Man: Hell Yeah! season 2 may not be on the table for the time being, Lorey added that "necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes, it"s a good idea to take your characters and put them up against something that not even you know how they can resolve it, and figure out a way."
Could Harley Quinn & Creature Commandos Potentially Crossover? "It's Comics, So You Could Conceivably Do Anything"

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With Lorey pulling double-duty across Harley Quinn and Creature Commandos, the showrunner serves as the bridge between the two series, which obviously begs the question if an animated crossover is possible down the line. While Creature Commandos is part of James Gunn"s DC Universe, as Harley Quinn stands on its own, ScreenRant asked if a multiverse story could potentially bring the two shows together in any capacity.
When discussing if that possibility has been talked about at DC Studios, Lorey stressed, "Never say never. But I will say that James is very clear that Creature Commandos is canon [to the DCU] and Harley exists in what we call the Harley-verse, which at the moment is Harley Quinn and Kite Man. So that"s its own universe and we"ve been treating them as very separate. But look, it"s comics, so you could conceivably do anything. So I wouldn"t be against it.
Finally, while Harley Quinn season 6 remains to be seen, Lorey shared some big news for Creature Commandos season 2, following its renewal in December 2024. While no premiere date has been set yet, DC Studios is actively working on the new season, as Lorey told ScreenRant that "We"re still at an early point. We"re breaking the season, so we"re not in production yet, but it is very much on a fast track. We"ve got some really interesting ideas and we"re actively doing it now."
Harley Quinn season 5 drops new episodes on Thursdays only on Max.
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