Anil Krishna 
Jonathan Millar 
James Oconner 
HBO Is Developing a Live-Action Poison Ivy Series With The Penguin Creator in Talks
© DC
Gotham City could be getting another villain-led TV series, and this time Poison Ivy may be the one taking center stage. Following the success of The Penguin, Warner Bros. and DC Studios are reportedly developing a live-action show about Pamela Isley, the botanist better known as one of Batman’s most dangerous enemies. Lauren LeFranc, who created and ran The Penguin, is also in talks to join the project as a producer. If the series moves forward, it would give DC another chance to explore a familiar villain without necessarily needing Batman to show up every few minutes.
According to Deadline, the Poison Ivy series is in the early stages of development at Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. LeFranc is negotiating to produce the show, but she isn’t currently attached to write it, and no writer has been announced. HBO hasn’t ordered the series yet, either, so there’s still a long way to go before it becomes an actual production.
There’s also a fairly important question about where the show would fit in DC’s larger plans. The project reportedly won’t take place in Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe, the one featuring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight. Whether it will be part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s main DC Universe or developed as a separate Elseworlds story hasn’t been confirmed.
The idea makes sense after The Penguin proved that a Batman villain can carry a series without Batman himself taking over the story. Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb was at the center of a grim crime drama about power, violence, and the struggle to control Gotham’s underworld. Poison Ivy would be a very different proposition. Her story could get into environmental destruction, scientific obsession, and the point at which protecting nature becomes an excuse for hurting people. She’s a villain, certainly, but she’s also a character whose motives can be more complicated than simply wanting money or power.
That’s where the challenge lies. Poison Ivy has often been portrayed as a flamboyant villain with plant-based weapons and the ability to manipulate people, but there’s a lot more to Pamela Isley than that. A series would have room to explore how she became so deeply connected to nature, what pushed her toward extremism, and whether there’s any line she still refuses to cross.
Who Is Poison Ivy, and Why Could She Work as the Lead of an HBO Drama?
Poison Ivy first appeared in DC Comics in 1966, created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino. Behind the name is Pamela Isley, a gifted botanist whose connection to plant life gives her extraordinary abilities. Depending on the version of the character, she can control vegetation, produce dangerous toxins, and use pheromones to influence human behaviour.
What makes Ivy interesting is that her anger at humanity isn’t entirely difficult to understand. She sees people destroying the natural world and believes plants and ecosystems deserve protection, even if that means turning against the people responsible. The trouble is that her methods can be brutal, and her idea of justice often leaves little room for anyone who gets in her way. That tension between a cause people can sympathise with and actions that are difficult to defend could give a live-action drama plenty to work with.
The character has already appeared in several screen adaptations, though not always in the same form. Uma Thurman’s version in the 1997 film Batman & Robin was colourful, theatrical, and very much in keeping with the movie’s larger-than-life tone. The TV series Gotham also featured different versions of Pamela Isley, played by Clare Foley, Maggie Geha, and Peyton List. Bridget Regan later took on the role in Batwoman.
Ivy has arguably had more room to develop in animation. In the adult animated series Harley Quinn, she isn’t just another Batman villain. Her relationship with Harley is a major part of the story, giving the character an emotional life beyond her environmental crusade and her hatred of Gotham’s powerful people.
LeFranc’s possible involvement is one of the more encouraging details about the project. With The Penguin, she helped turn a familiar comic-book villain into the centre of a grounded crime story, following Oz Cobb’s rise through violence, family problems, and ruthless power plays. That approach could work for Ivy, too, particularly if the series spends time on Pamela’s life before she becomes a full-blown eco-terrorist. The goal would be to understand how she got there, rather than treating her transformation as something that happened simply because the plot needed a villain.
The Poison Ivy project is also part of a wider push to tell stories about DC characters who don’t always get to lead their own films or shows. Clayface, a body-horror film directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries, is another example of DC exploring a villain outside a conventional Batman story. Meanwhile, The Brave and the Bold is in development as the film that will introduce Batman into Gunn and Safran’s DC Universe. A separate movie featuring Bane and Deathstroke has also been announced.
For now, though, the Poison Ivy series is still only in early development. There is no confirmed writer, cast, release date, or official HBO series order, so it would be premature to treat it as a sure thing. Still, the fact that DC is looking at the character for a standalone drama, with the creator of The Penguin in talks to produce, suggests the studio sees plenty of potential in Gotham’s villains beyond the usual Batman-versus-bad-guy setup. Whether Ivy gets her own show will depend on what happens next, but the idea certainly has room to grow.
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