Harley Quinn Introduces Trans and Non-Binary Characters

08/10/2023 07:55 pm EDT

Harley Quinn has never shied away from queer themes, featuring many LGBTQ+ characters and a central romance between Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Now, the show is bringing in trans characters from the comics. The fifth episode of Harley Quinn's new season, "Getting Ice Dick, Don't Wait Up," was a big one as it introduced an exciting line-up of new characters in addition to seemingly killing off one of its main characters. One newcomer is Alysia, Batgirl's roommate, who is voiced by trans actress Rain Valdez. 

In the comics, Alysia Yeoh was first introduced in Batgirl Vol 4 #1 in 2011. On the page, Alysia is also trans and married to political activist Jo Muñoz. In the newest episode of Harley Quinn, Alysia meets Harley and tells her that she served as an inspiration to her while transitioning. However, Alysia isn't the only comics character to make her Harley Quinn debut this week... 

As Poison Ivy continues to lead the new Legion of Doom, she has a new group of mentees: Terra (Kerry Knuppe), Volcana (Jeannie Tirado), and Tefe Holland (Vico Ortiz). This version of Terra, also known as Atlee, made her comic debut in Supergirl Vol 5 #12 in 2007. Volcana first debuted in Superman: The Animated Series in the episode "Where There's Smoke" in 1998, and Tefe was originally introduced as the daughter of Swamp Thing in Swamp Thing Vol 2 #90 in 1989.

Ortiz is best known for their role as Jim, the fan-favorite non-binary pirate in Our Flag Means Death, so it's no surprise Tefe is non-binary in Harley Quinn. While Tefe uses she/her pronouns in the comics, the character is confirmed to be bisexual. In Harley Quinn, Jim Gordon makes a comment about Ivy's mentees being women, and Tefe replies, "We're not all women, dude." 

Will Harley Quinn Get a Season 5?

In a recent interview with Inverse, Harley Quinn supervising producer Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton and co-producer Ian Hamilton hinted that Harley Quinn has yet to be greenlit for a fifth season. However, they are hoping that DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran will renew the show.

"Well, we don't really know at this point," Cecilia explained. "Nothing has been communicated directly to us. As far as we know, he likes the show. You know, he was in it. [laughs] So we assume he's a fan of the show. We don't know exactly where we're going to go from here... We hope that Season 4 is successful and the fans really like it and James Gunn likes it and we can continue exploring this universe, but this is all we know so far. We hope there's a Season 5 where we can take them to new places and we can they can explore new areas in their relationship."

"This season really does a lot to flesh out the entire universe," Ian added. "By the end of the season, you don't know where they're going to go just because we fleshed out the Harley Quinn-specific DC universe so much over the course of this season. You really could go anywhere."

The first five episodes of Harley Quinn's fourth season are streaming on Max. 

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