Poison Ivy Series in the Works, With The Penguin’s Lauren LeFranc in Talks to Produce

A live-action Poison Ivy series is in the works at Warner Bros. and DC, with HBO as its intended home, and The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc is in talks to produce it, Deadline reported Wednesday.

According to Deadline’s sources, the show will not be set in Matt Reeves’ Batman universe, the Gotham built around Robert Pattinson in The Batman and expanded on HBO with The Penguin.

LeFranc would produce only and is not writing the series. No writers are attached yet, and no one has been cast as Ivy. HBO has not ordered the show; Deadline says it would go there if it gets picked up.

The report also leaves open where the series would sit. Ruling out the Reeves world doesn’t place it in the DCU that James Gunn and Peter Safran run, and Deadline didn’t say either way.

Round two for Ivy

This is the second Poison Ivy series to surface this year. In July, Jeff Sneider said on The Hot Mic that DC Studios had an Ivy show in development, reportedly set in Reeves’ Gotham alongside The Batman and The Penguin. One report on that pitch described Ivy as a botanist who becomes an ecoterrorist.

On August 12, The Ankler reported that DC and HBO had passed on pitches for a Poison Ivy series and a Catwoman series. Who pitched them was never made public. The same report said the Amanda Waller series with Viola Davis and the Wonder Woman prequel Paradise Lost were dead at DC Studios.

Ivy could still turn up in Reeves’ Gotham. Scarlett Johansson remains rumored for the role in The Batman: Part II, a casting nobody has confirmed. Moving the new series out of the Reeves world would keep the two versions apart.

LeFranc’s HBO run

LeFranc created The Penguin, the eight-episode series starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone. It earned 24 Emmy nominations, second that year only to Apple TV+’s Severance. After that haul, she signed a two-year overall deal with HBO and HBO Max and launched her own banner, Acid and Tender Productions.

A second season of The Penguin has been on the back burner while the studio focuses on The Batman: Part II. Farrell has said he would come back if it fits Reeves’ plans.

Ivy on screen and on the page

A series would give Poison Ivy her first lead role in live action. Fox’s Gotham cast three actresses in the part over its run, the last being Peyton List, and Bridget Regan played her on The CW’s Batwoman. Lake Bell has voiced Ivy since 2019 on the animated Harley Quinn, now on HBO Max, where Ivy and Harley’s relationship sits at the center of the show.

In the comics, G. Willow Wilson’s Poison Ivy, the character’s first ongoing solo title, launched in 2022 and is closing in on issue #50. Wilson’s current arc has Ivy serving as Mayor of Gotham City.