Poison Ivy TV Series In Development at HBO With ‘The Penguin’ Showrunner

Batman adversary and Gotham’s biggest plant lover, Poison Ivy, may be getting her own television series.

The Penguin creator and showrunner Lauren LeFranc is in talks to produce a series on the super-villain for HBO and DC Studios, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. No cast or writer specifics are yet available for the series, which is in early stages, though it‘s said that the series would not fall within The Batman director Matt Reeves’ universe for the character.

Deadline was the first to report the news. HBO declined to comment.

In the world of Batman comics, Poison Ivy is the alter ego of Dr. Pamela Isley, a botanist who gains supernatural powers to control plants and subsequently becomes an ecoterrorist in Gotham. After her introduction in the comics in 1966, she became a staple of the superhero’s rogues gallery, later to be memorably portrayed by Uma Thurman in the 1997 live-action film Batman & Robin.

Poison Ivy has never fronted her own television series, though she’s starred frequently in animated projects like Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Harley Quinn (the character to which she is sometimes romantically linked). She also made appearances in the live-action series Gotham and Batwoman.

LeFranc, meanwhile, made her mark on Gotham with The Penguin, which became a ratings hit and a critical darling when it debuted in 2024. That series was firmly within Reeves’ Batman universe, with Colin Farrell reprising his prosthetics-heavy role from The Batman as the eponymous villain and Reeves serving as an executive producer. The series won nine Emmys in 2025.

Prior to The Penguin, LeFranc worked with Marvel as a writer and producer on ABC’s Agents of SHIELD.

The news arrives just a day before a lesser-known Batman villain, Clayface, gets the silver-screen treatment with his eponymous film directed by James Watkins. The next installment in Reeves‘ Batman film series, The Batman Part II, is slated to premiere on Feb. 18, 2028. Meanwhile, HBO has not renewed The Penguin for a second season.