A Harley Quinn spinoff starring Kite Man is taking flight at HBO Max. Patrick Schumacker, co-developer and co-showrunner of the DC adult animated series following the adventures of Harley Quinn (voice of Kaley Cuoco) after she breaks up with the Joker (Alan Tudyk), revealed the spinoff tentatively titled Noonan’s at SXSW. Like Cheers but for Bat-villains, the spinoff sees perverted criminal caterer Kite Man (Matt Oberg) taking ownership of Noonan’s Bar: a Gotham City hangout for supervillains like Joker and bartender Clayface (Tudyk).
After a Season 2 split from his eco-terrorist ex-fianc?e Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), Kite Man “tries to run the bar by himself, but it doesn’t turn out so easy,” Schumacker said during the “Not Kidding Around: Warner Bros. Animation and the Reimagining of Iconic Characters for an Adult Audience” panel at SXSW (via /Film). “We have Harley and Ivy appear in the first episode, but after that, we have different goons and villains appearing every episode like Lex Luthor and Bane.”
Noonan’s “will be kind of like Cheers for supervillains,” added Schumacker, who co-created the hit Harley Quinn with Justin Halpern and Dean Lorey.
In an exclusive post-season interview with ComicBook in 2020, Schumacker teased what’s next for Kite Man after leaving Ivy at the altar in Season 2:
“I will say one thing that we talked about was Kite Man, despite obviously not being in sort of a third wheel anymore, or whatever you want to call him, he poses no threat to Ivy and Harley. But we don’t want to just completely wipe him off the board,” Schumacker said. “That said, we want to give him kind of a win and you know, ‘Who’s he maybe dating now? Does he have like a rebound girlfriend? Is his rebound girlfriend someone who also has similar powers to him?'”
In Season 3, premiering later in 2022 on HBO Max, “We definitely want to see him happy and in a relationship at some point,” Schumacker said. “So we’ve been talking about that.”
Harley Quinn stars Kaley Cuoco as Harley; Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Cheryl, and Barbara; Alan Tudyk as Joker, Clayface, Calendar Man, Doctor Trap, and Condiment King; Tony Hale as Doctor Psycho and Felix Faust; Ron Funches as King Shark; Jason Alexander as Sy Borgman; Matt Oberg as Kite Man; and J.B. Smoove as Frank the Plant.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Harley Quinn are now streaming on HBO Max.