A Poison Ivy television series is in early development for HBO and DC Studios, with The Penguin creator Lauren LeFranc in talks to produce. The project has not received a series order, and no writer or lead actor is attached.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the early-stage project on October 21. HBO declined to comment. The potential show would give one of Batman’s best-known adversaries a television story centered on her, rather than another supporting appearance in someone else’s series.
Deadline, which first reported the news, said LeFranc would produce rather than write the project. Her proposed job therefore differs from her role creating and running The Penguin. No writer has been attached to develop the new show’s version of Dr. Pamela Isley.
No actor has been chosen to play Ivy. The reports do not identify a returning performer from an earlier adaptation, and the involvement of The Penguin’s creator does not establish a connection to that show’s characters or cast.
The series would reportedly sit outside director Matt Reeves’s Batman universe, TheWrap also reported. That separates the proposed project from The Penguin, which followed the events of Reeves’s 2022 film The Batman. The reports did not specify how Poison Ivy would fit into DC Studios’ wider continuity.
The Penguin debuted in 2024 with Colin Farrell reprising Oz Cobb from The Batman, while Reeves served as an executive producer. Its eight-episode story followed Cobb’s rise in Gotham City. The limited series won nine Emmys in 2025, including the lead-actress award for Cristin Milioti.
That success supplies the professional connection behind LeFranc’s talks, but the new character comes with a different history and set of powers. Poison Ivy’s story is rooted in botany, environmental conflict and her capacity to turn the natural world against her enemies.
A familiar Batman adversary without an announced new incarnation
On DC’s official character page, Ivy is described as controlling plant life and using pheromones to influence people. The publisher also lists immunity to toxins and the ability to secrete deadly toxins among her powers. These are attributes of the established comic-book character, not an announced outline for the HBO project.
DC places her first appearance in Batman No. 181 in 1966 and identifies Gotham City as her base. Its profile describes an environmental extremist who believes humanity has abused the planet, but also emphasizes her capacity for compassion, particularly toward women who have been victimized.
That combination has given Ivy roles beyond a conventional adversary for Batman. The character’s relationship with Harley Quinn is another established part of her screen history, although no relationship, origin story or plot has been announced for the proposed live-action series.
Uma Thurman played Ivy in the 1997 film Batman & Robin. Live-action television has offered other versions: Clare Foley, Maggie Geha and Peyton List portrayed her in Gotham, while Bridget Regan played her in Batwoman. Those credits describe earlier incarnations, not casting for the new project.
Lake Bell has voiced Ivy in HBO Max’s adult animated series Harley Quinn. Ivy has also appeared in Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. A new series centered on her would therefore be a different undertaking from simply bringing the character to television for the first time.
LeFranc’s producing relationship with HBO
The potential assignment would fall under LeFranc’s two-year overall agreement with HBO. That deal was announced in August 2025, when she also launched Acid and Tender Productions, TheWrap reported at the time.
“I am thrilled to continue my creative partnership with HBO,” LeFranc said in the announcement. She described her company’s purpose as supporting writers and filmmakers interested in “authentic, off-kilter, character-driven stories, no matter the genre.” The agreement created a producing relationship broader than her work on The Penguin alone.
Another project in that relationship is Imposter, a drama written by Kalos Chu. In an August 31 report, Deadline said HBO had acquired it for development after a bidding contest, with LeFranc and her company’s head of television and film, Rachel Jacobs, executive producing. It is a separate project, not part of the Poison Ivy story.
Before The Penguin, LeFranc’s television writing and producing credits included Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Impulse, Chuck and My Own Worst Enemy. The proposed Ivy assignment would bring her back to a DC character while placing her on the producing side of a project that still needs its writer.
Elsewhere in Reeves’s franchise, The Hollywood Reporter noted that HBO has not renewed The Penguin for a second season. The Batman Part II is scheduled for February 18, 2028. Those are separate updates to that continuity, rather than a timetable for Poison Ivy.
The Poison Ivy reports did not provide an episode count, filming schedule or premiere date. For now, the creative work described publicly centers on development and LeFranc’s prospective producing role, with the character’s new screen incarnation still to be defined.
