'Harley Quinn' spinoff about Kite Man buying a bar for Gotham super-villains in the works at HBO Max

The foul-mouthed and Deadpool-esque animated universe of HBO Max's Harley Quinn television series is about to expand in the most unexpected way possible.

Appearing at the SXSW festival in Austin for the "Not Kidding Around: Warner Bros. Animation and the Reimagining of Iconic Characters for an Adult Audience" panel, Harley Quinn co-creator Patrick Schumacker let slip (via /FILM) that a spinoff centered around the ridiculous character of Kite Man (voiced by Matt Oberg) is currently in development at the WarnerMedia-owned streaming service.

Tentatively titled Noonan's, the show will see the D-list baddie purchasing and operating Noonan's Bar, a classic hangout spot for killers and hench-people in the comics published by DC. "He tries to run the bar by himself but it doesn't turn out so easy," Schumacker said. "We have Harley [Kaley Cuoco] and Ivy [Lake Bell] appear in the first episode, but after that, we have with different goons and villains appearing every episode like Lex Luthor and Bane. It will be kind of like Cheers for super-villains." He also emphasized that it's still early days on the project, which means elements might change or the entire project could end up receiving the dreaded axe.

Even so, there's still plenty to be excited about, namely the upcoming Season 3 premiere for Quinn. No date has been announced yet, but the creatives kept repeating the word "soon" when the topic of new episodes came up in the panel conversation. To give fans something to look forward to, Schumacker teased a storyline that serves as "a big love letter to Batman: the Animated Series. We even got some original backgrounds from the show that we use in the episode."

Oh, and James Gunn will apparently be making an appearance in Season 3 as — you ready for this one? — HIMSELF! Not only that, but the filmmaker (now deeply entrenched in the DC Universe thanks to The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker) will find his animated version directing a movie about the life of Thomas Wayne.

Originally exclusive to the DC Universe streaming platform (now the DC Infinite comic book-reading service), Harley Quinn was renewed for a third season almost two years ago.

"We're just super excited to finally actually be able to put that into action and actually get the ideas ping-ponging off both the returning writers and the inevitable new writers that we're getting to hire now. I am very excited to finally get those ideas out and about in the ether," Schumacker said at the time.

While the pandemic is probably to blame for the unusually large gap between Seasons 2 and, DC was able to keep the fun going in the Harley Quinn: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour comic from writer Tee Franklin and artist Max Sarin.