Noonan's: Everything We Know So Far About The Harley Quinn Spinoff
With all due respect to Margot Robbie, who's stellar as Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe, the animated "Harley Quinn" series is easily my favorite recent DC project. It's a show that digs deeply into the psychology of Batman's rogues, revealing them for the very flawed yet very human beings they are, and following them as they try to make something better of their lives in the crime-infested quagmire that is Gotham City. If anything, it's Batman and his refusal to find a healthy outlet for dealing with his trauma, or a better use of his endless resources to help Gotham's citizens, who comes off looking worse than the likes of Harley, Poison Ivy, or Bane on the series. "Harley Quinn" also manages to be incredibly violent, crude, and utterly laugh-out-loud hilarious while doing all this, which has only made the extended wait for season 3 all the more unbearable.
With "Harley Quinn" confirmed to make its return in 2022, HBO Max has gone ahead and announced its first spinoff series in the form of "Noonan's." The show will center on Kite Man, a character who's a much better person than he is a super-villain. "Harley Quinn" season 2 ended with Kite Man calling off his wedding to Poison Ivy, having accepted she's just not in love with him the way he's in love with her. With Ivy now off to try her hand at a full-blown romantic relationship with Harley, that leaves Kite Man to go and do what anyone nursing a broken heart would logically do: open a bar for super-villains.
When and where to watch Noonan's
"Noonan's" was revealed as being in development at the Not Kidding Around: Warner Bros. Animation and the Reimagining of Iconic Characters for an Adult Audience panel at SXSW in March 2022. It has since received an official 10-episode order from HBO Max. "Exploring this world further with our partners at HBO Max and DC is going to be a lot of fun. Plus, after getting dumped by Poison Ivy, the least we could do was give Kite Man his own show," said Peter Girardi, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, Warner Bros. Animation.
As part of its press release, HBO Max confirmed "Harley Quinn" season 3 will arrive in summer 2022, with a concrete premiere date yet to be revealed. "Noonan's" will also stream on the service, what with DC Universe, the original home of "Harley Quinn," now exclusively a digital comics subscription service. That makes mid-to-late 2023 a likely release window for the spinoff series, giving us a healthy year-long break between installments in the "Harley Quinn"-verse.
What we think Noonan's will be about
HBO Max's press release came with a synopsis, reading:
Lovable loser Kite Man and his new squeeze Golden Glider moonlight as criminals to support their foolish purchase of Noonan's, Gotham's seediest dive bar, where everybody knows your name, but not necessarily your secret identity!
If the line about Noonan's being "where everybody knows your name" seems like a not-so-subtle hint the series is a "Cheers" riff starring Batman's enemies, that's exactly how "Harley Quinn" executive producer Patrick Schumacker described the show at SXSW. Noonan's Bar itself has been part of DC's comic books since 1993 and is a popular hangout spot among Gotham's criminals, taking its name from its proprietor, the ex-hitman Sean Robert Noonan. (A bar servicing super-villains was also featured recently on Hulu's animated Marvel series "M.O.D.O.K." — the more you know!) Schumacker added that Harley and Ivy will appear in the show's first episode, "but after that we have with different goons and villains appearing every episode like Lex Luthor and Bane."
What we know about the Noonan's cast and crew
The "Harley Quinn" development team (Schumacker, Justin Halpern, and Dean Lorey) is executive producing "Noonan's" with "Harley Quinn" executive producers Sam Register and Kaley Cuoco, with Lorey also serving as showrunner. Delicious Non-Sequitur and Yes, Norman Productions will produce the series along with Warner Bros. Animation.
While Matt Oberg is confirmed to be reprising his "Harley Quinn" role as Kite Man for "Noonan's," a voice actor for Golden Glider has yet to be unveiled. Beyond that, it stands to reason Cuoco will once again voice Harley Quinn for the show's first episode, with Lake Bell similarly returning as Poison Ivy. Giancarlo Esposito and James Adomian should also be back as the voices of Lex Luthor and Bane, with Alan Tudyk a strong contender to show up at some point as the Joker (despite having left his life of crime behind for a quiet existence in suburbia).
Even more than "Harley Quinn," it seems "Noonan's" will be an ensemble series, rather than one Kite Man has to carry by himself. With so many Gotham law-breakers to choose from, of both the notorious and obscure variety, the spinoff shouldn't be hurting for zany scenarios to mine for comedic inspiration, either.