HBO's Poison Ivy show has a producer and not much else yet

HBO may have its next Gotham villain show, but it is a lot earlier than the headlines make it sound. Deadline reports that The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc is in talks to produce a live-action Poison Ivy series from Warner Bros. and DC, and Variety has confirmed the project is in the works at HBO.

I got excited too. Then I read the details, and the details are mostly empty spaces. That is not a knock. It is just where this show is right now, and it is worth knowing before anybody starts fan-casting.

What is actually confirmed

Here is the short version, pulled across the reports. LeFranc is in talks to produce, not to write, and there are no writers attached yet. TheWrap says the series has not been greenlit and that it would fall under LeFranc's two-year overall deal with HBO. Deadline says plans were on pause during the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger, that the show would go to HBO if picked up, and that it would not be part of Matt Reeves' Batman universe. No one has been cast.

The open question is the big one. Polygon points out that Deadline's report does not say whether this Poison Ivy would live in James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe or somewhere else entirely. So the show has a character, a likely network and a producer in talks. It does not have a script, a star or a home continuity.

A producer in talks, no writer, no greenlight, no universe. Poison Ivy is a pitch with a very good name on it.

Gotham villains on screen this decade

The reason this rumor got loud is the company it keeps. Batman's villains keep getting projects without Batman, and they now span two separate continuities. Here is how the current crop lines up, from the reporting linked here.

Look at the last row next to the first. The Penguin worked because it had a lead from a hit film and a very specific crime story. Poison Ivy has neither yet. She has never been the main character of a live-action movie or show, as Variety notes, and her past live-action takes, from Uma Thurman in 1997's Batman & Robin to Gotham and Batwoman, have kept her in a supporting lane. My favorite recent version is Lake Bell's voice performance in HBO Max's Harley Quinn, where Ivy is a full person and Harley's girlfriend, not a plot device.

Four signals that it is real

Here is my watch list. Each one would move this from rumor to show.

• A writer or showrunner hire. LeFranc producing is a stamp of approval. Someone writing the pilot is the actual start.
• A straight answer on continuity. DCU or standalone changes everything, from who could cameo to whether it shares a world with Clayface.
• A series order or pilot order from HBO. TheWrap is clear there is no greenlight yet. That is the line to watch for.
• Casting. Not rumored names in comment sections. A trade report with an actor's name in it.

What I want from it

Deadline describes the character the way DC long has: Dr. Pamela Isley, created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, who controls plants and uses pheromones to control people. That description is the problem a series has to solve. Pheromone mind control is a great comics power and a tough TV engine, because it can make every scene a question of whether anyone has free will. The Harley Quinn take solved it by making her the most reasonable person in the room. I would take that energy into live action, just with The Penguin's grit around it.

It also lands in a busy DC week. Clayface topped the box office on a modest budget, which is an argument for smaller villain-led stories, and DC's TV slate already has Mister Miracle's first look out in the wild. Even the toy side is leaning into rogues, with LEGO's 2027 Batman wave giving Oz his own vehicle.

So yes, keep an eye on Poison Ivy. Just keep the other eye on that list. Until a writer signs on, this is a very promising name attached to a blank page.

How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance. Sources are linked in the piece.