HBO's dipping back into the Bat-villain well with a live-action Poison Ivy show

This is per THR, which reports that the recently-purchased studio is pushing forward with development of a live-action Poison Ivy show, complete with reports that Lauren LeFranc, showrunner on The Penguin, might sign on to serve as a producer. (To be clear, those same reports note that, unlike that series, this one won’t be set in Matt Reeves’ aggressively grounded The Batman franchise.) The series would be the first TV or film project to focus solely on the semi-nefarious Dr. Pamela Isley, who’s gotten recent boosts in popularity from both a prominent appearance in DC’s animated Harley Quinn show—which cemented years of subtext by making Ivy and its lead character an actual item—and through a recent series of high-profile runs in the comics, especially G. Willow Wilson’s body horror-heavy run on the character that started in 2023.

Ivy’s one of those characters who’s come into and out of vogue over the years, as aspects of her character have become more or less in line with modern tastes; her initial “evil sexpot” persona, which was highlighted with Uma Thurman’s performance in 1997’s Batman And Robin, has mostly fallen out of favor in recent years. But her self-appointed role as the extremist guardian of the natural world, venting her rage against humanity’s environmental carnage with giant plant monsters and deadly viruses, has only become more relevant. There’s no word yet on which aspects of the character will be highlighted for the series, which is still apparently in its early planning stages.