Movies & TV / News

DC Wouldn’t Allow Harley Quinn Animated Series to Show a Batman & Catwoman Sex Scene

June 15, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Harley Quinn Animated Series

The Harley Quinn animated series has a lot of R-rated content, but there was a particular kind of sex scene between Batman and Catwoman that DC shot down. Justin Halpern, who co-created the series, spoke with Variety as part of a piece about how some comic book-based television shows are subverting the superhero genre and talked about how supportive DC has been regarding the very adult-oriented series.

Halpern noted that DC has allowed them to do a lot because they are using villainous characters for the most part, though he noted that DC did demand that they axe one scene that depicted Batman giving oral sex to Catwoman. It’s not clear how explicit the scene was from Halpern’s comments — Harley Quinn has a lot of violence, swearing and sexual references, though no on-screen explicit sexual depictions. From what he says though, it doesn’t seem to be about what was shown, but rather the act itself, because — get ready to raise an eyebrow, people — “Heroes don’t do that.”

“It’s incredibly gratifying and free to be using characters that are considered villains because you just have so much more leeway,” Halpern said. “A perfect example of that is in this third season of Harley [when] we had a moment where Batman was going down on Catwoman. And DC was like, ‘You can’t do that. You absolutely cannot do that.’ They’re like, ‘Heroes don’t do that.’ So, we said, ‘Are you saying heroes are just selfish lovers?’ They were like, ‘No, it’s that we sell consumer toys for heroes. It’s hard to sell a toy if Batman is also going down on someone.’”

Variety does note that Halpern and co-creator Patrick Schumacker said that DC has been very supportive of the show, and has allowed them to push the envelope of what would be considered acceptable multiple times. The third season of Harley Quinn has yet to premiere, but is expected to hit HBO Max late this year or early next year.