Girls Rule

Girls Rule is an American animated television series created by Chris McKay for the streaming service Max and Cartoon Network, based on the DC Comics "Gotham City Sirens" comic books series. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, it is intended to be part of the LEGO Extended Universe sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Sam Register serves as executive producer along with Dan Lin and Roy Lee. It follows Harley Quinn who, after parting ways with the Joker, teams up with Catwoman and Poison Ivy as they try to thwart an evil conspiracy in Gotham City. Mckay serves as head writer and director, alogside Sam Register.

Jenny Slate, Zoë Kravitz and Riki Lindhome reprise their roles as Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy from the film Lego Batman (2017) long with Rosario Dawson, Will Arnett and Nolan North also starring. Development on the series began by March 2019, with Mckay directing and writting. The series was oficially announced in July 2019, along with the casting of Slate. Register was hired shortly after, with additional casting revealed that year. Shane Acker joined to Mckay to direct in January 2021. Animal Logic, who also produced animation for the films in the franchise, provided aesthetic animation for the series, which ended in early March 2022. Additional scenes were made in June 2022, as extra shorts episodes. The series was renewed for a twelve-episode second season in May 2023 with Mckay returning as a writer and executive producer for the second season.

Girls Rule premiered on October 17, 2022, and the first season consisted of seven main episodes, including a second segment of episodes that aired in April 2023. The series premiere was watched by more than 3.8 million viewers on cable channels and HBO Max on the first day. The first season received positive reviews, towards the animation, musical score, and voice acting. However, the pace was criticized.

Premise
After the events of Lego Dimensions (2022), Harley Quinn has been kicked out of the Joker's mob and now alone in Gotham City, she must team up with Catwoman and Poison Ivy to solve a strange mystery.

Cast and characters
The Joker's ex-girlfriend. She was abandoned and expelled by the mafia. Quinn has been the Joker's companion for so long and now she feels "exhausted" and unsure of "her place in the world" after being kicked out by him in Lego Dimensions (2022). Slate said that the series would delve into Harley's future and development and allow her to "explore more than just the badass that she has" and "to find out who he was and dig into how much all affects her personal life," with Mckay took inspiration from media like Birds of Prey (2020) or his initial debut from Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95). Slate went on to say that Girls Rule allowed him to "figure out some things and figure out some new things" with it, which she hadn't had the opportunity to do in his previous outspoken appearances as a minor character. Executive producer Dan Lin added to this, noting that "the sins of her past, the actions she takes and how they affect her is a point of torment". An expert doctor in silver. After directly attacking the Joker, she was forced to escape and hide. Later in the season he accepts a job at STAR Labs. Slate described Ivy in the series as "a smart girl and not just a beauty with great powers", with Ivy acting as the "right hand" of the team; this forces her to make "many decisions, some good, some bad." A billionaire by day and superhero by night, who defends Gotham City from crime. . Arnett also voiced the character in the films of the franchise. Additionally, Fred Stoller is expected to appear as Harold Allnut, a genius partner of Batman's for a long time, David Hayter as Boneblaster, a new supervillain from Gotham.
 * Jenny Slate as Harley Quinn:
 * Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman: Joker's former smuggler and hacker. She, like many other henchmen, were also kicked out of the mob. Now it is limited and stealing in the streets with a knife.
 * Riki Lindhome as Poison Ivy:
 * Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, the newly-elected police commissioner of Gotham.
 * Will Arnett as Batman:
 * Nolan North As Thomas Elliot: A supervillain hoping to take down Batman due to a childhood trauma.
 * Will Friedle as Maxwell Burton: a STAR Labs doctor who discovers Poison Ivy by investigating hidden files. After passing some incidents, both become boyfriends.
 * Conan O'Brien as Riddler: A Gotham City criminal mastermind, he colludes with Hush in his plan until he betrays him. He ends up in Arkham Asylium after a confrontation.

Episodes

 * Main article: List of Girls Rule episodes

Development
In July 2019, Chris Mckay, director of Lego Batman (2017), stated that he was developing with Warner Bros. a "potential spin-off series that would build heavily on material in DC Comics" in association with The Lego Group. The series would be centered around the character Harley Quinn as a comedy drama, set in the LEGO Extended Universe. As of November 2018, Jenny Slate was in talks to star in the lead role, returning from previous appearances. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter she mentioned that it was time for the character to get his own movie, calling him "quite a charismatic character in movies that has yet to be fully exploited beyond small cameos." Slate was hired to reprise his role on the series, with Sam Register serving as executive producer in August 2019. Warner Bros. officially announced in November 2019 a new series titled Girls Rule, with Slate co-starring with Zoë Kravitz and Riki Lindhome as Catwoman and Poison Ivy. The series is based on the 2009-11 comic book story "Gotham City Sirens" by Paul Dini, with Register describing it as a "liennal animated series" that would tie-in with films in the franchise; The premise of the series further described it as a series of crossover events. Mckay mentioned that the series was originally known as Mysteries in Gotham, as the plot was to be an anthology series based on the Elseworlds comics. In May 2019, Shane Acker joined as showrunner, directing 3 episodes of the first season. On November 11, 2019, it was announced that the series had been greenlit, with a prokected release date of 2021 on the new Warner Bros. HBO Max streaming service. The series will consist of seven episodes of 11 minutes. Additional scenes were made in June 2022, as additional short episodes produced for Easter 2023.

Girls Rule was originally planned as a single season, but during production of the first season it was realized that there was "so much to explore with this show" and the story could continue. On December 26, 2022, Mckay mentioned in an interview with TheWrap that he was already working on writing a second season, but had not yet been given the official green light by the studio. Initially, writing work would begin early, with the goal of a late 2023 release. On April 4, 2023, Warner Bros. renewed the series for a twelve-episode (5 half-hours) second season, with Mckay and Register returning. Following the second season renewal, the Register stated that the second season is expected to premiere in 2024. In June 2023, Warner Bros. stated that the season would premiere on November 11, 2024. According to Mckay, the season will have a separate storyline to the main season one finale, will feature a Christmas and winter setting and will present the villains of Batman The Penguin and Mr. Freeze. In an interview, Mckay revealed that for the second season up the buildup from season 1, the show's eponymous team would be wanted for threatening a conspiracy by a group of criminals. He teased that the season was expected to feature themes of friendship, complacency, corruption and terrorism: "I admit I'm pretty angry about the way things are, and now I can convey it more with creative freedom for this season."

Writing
Writing work began in October 2019. Dan Lin said the series would seek to match the range of emotionality between the characters to the Gotham City Sirens comic book story. He described Girls Rules as an emotional and friendship showcase, driving themes such as effective responsibility and familiarity, exploring elements of betrayal, paranoia and mystery, things the comic series did "which was great with the twists and turns it took". The creatives also drew inspiration from "friend travel" novels, along with contemporary television series like Sherlock (2010-2017). Mckay said that the series would serve as a continuation of the Lego Batman story and would follow directly from the in-development film Lego Dimensions (2023), which he found to be a "fun idea". He also said that the series would uncover some of the things that have not been shown in other appearances of the character Harley Quinn, such as Margot Robbie's version. Zoë Kravitz described the series as "a very grounded earthy drama" that "dealt with real human issues unnoticed and dealt with trust".

Mckay teased that the closed ending of the first season would create a more viable environment to follow the story, including new plots and characters and focusing on the coexistence of the protagonists as the core of the show. A major theme portrayed on the show is political corruption and how it affects various people's lives, though the team tries to include real-world commentary: "We're going after corruption in season 2." The season also introduces The Penguin and Mr. Freeze, Batman's traditional enemies. For the introduction of the characters, Mckay decided to present the Penguin character initially as a calm and pleasant character with the intention of hiding his true colors until the third episode, intending to reflect how people are not always what they seem and pointing out factors of hypocrisy. The character of Mr. Frezee has been described as a very evil character and as the main antagonist of the season, willing to brutally finish off anyone who gets in his way. All eight episodes were primarily written by Mckay along with Erik C. Wiese, with the eighth and final episode, titled "A Snow Slope with Nobody", was directed by Chris Mckay and written by Lauren Faust.

Season 1
Slate was expected to reprise her role as Harley Quinn in the series with the reveal of her development in early 2019 and as production began Slate's casting was confirmed and Kravizt and Lindhome were announced as her co-stars. The search for additional voice cast for the project was opened in January 2020. David Hayter was cast as Bloneblaster, the season-opening "main villain" role, in March 2020, and the following month, Rosario Dawson was cast in her role as Barbara Gordon alongside Will Arnett as Batman from their roles in the franchise movies and Jason Liebrecht In May 2021, Will Friedle joined the cast as a newly created character, rather than one from the comics, albeit loosely based on Dr. Maxwell Burtoln from the comics who had the potential to appear in films from the franchises. Fred Stoller is set to voice Batman's underling character Harold Allnut. In February 2022, director Mckay revealed that Conan O'Brien would appear in his role as Lego Batman from The Riddler, along with the announcement of Kate Micucci and Billy Dee Williams in undisclosed roles in May 2022.

In September 2020, Héctor Elizondo, who played Commissioner James Gordon on Lego Batman stated that he was not involved in the series, after "rampant speculation" suggested that he was, given the character's prominence in DC Comics-related history.

Season 2
On November 29, 2023, David Burrows, Danny DeVito, Laura Kightlinger and Mariah Carey were announced to have joined the cast for the second season as Mr. Frezee, The Penguin, the villian Orca and Mayor McCaskill, the mayor of Gotham. with Slate, Kravitz and Lindhome returning to their leading roles. Rosario Dawson also returns as Barbara Gordon, reprising her role as Batgirl that did not appear in Season 1. Will Arnett was scheduled to return as Batman but was unavailable due to scheduling setbacks. Héctor Elizondo joined as Alfed Pennyworth after not appearing in season 1. Billy Dee Williams has been cast as Mayor Elect Alnord Mckay, while Jason Liebrecht, Kate Micucci and have been cast in undisclosed roles.

Production
The project is a joint-venture production between Warner Animation Group and Animal Logic, who had provided the animation for the films in the franchise. Production had begun on November 2020 in Australia, under the working title Night Knightmares, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the series back from its initial date of 2021. Production was previously expected to begin in mid-March 2020, at the same time as Lego Dimensions. The animation used was custom made to be recognizable just like a theatrical film of the franchise. To improve on-screen detail and depth of field, the film's production took advantage of the latest update to its Glimpse trace renderer. Production concluded on February 1, 2022. A series of additional short episodes ran from June 2022 as part of the first season. The seven main season episodes reportedly had a production budget of nearly $65 million, while the marketing budget according to Deadline Hollywood exceeded $78 million, comparable to the budget of a blockbuster theatrical animated film.

Production of the second season, once again entrusted to Animal Logic, began on September 4, 2023 and will have a working time of around 8 months. The budget for the eight main season episodes of the second season increased 75% from season 1, as each episode cost over $15 million, totaling around $120 million.

Post-production
Post-production took place from May 2022, with David Burrows serve as editor. Burrows previously served as an editor on Lego Batman and worked closely with Mckay.

Music
In February 2022, Kris Bowers was revealed to be composing for the series, and was working on the score at that time.

Release
Girls Rule premiered on October 17, 2022 simultaneously on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, consisting of seven main episodes and conclude on April 7, 2023 with twelve episodes. It was previously expected to release within early 2021.

Critical response
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 81%, based on 863 reviews, with an average rating of 6.85. The website's critical consensus said, "Covering an era of tenuous peace with ferocious – albeit abbreviated – focus, Girls Rule is an impressive prequel that exemplifies the court intrigue that distinguished its predecessor." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the first season received a score of 53 out of 100 based on 43 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Viewership
The first two episodes, which premiered simultaneously, had 3.6 and 3.4 million viewers in the United States on their first night of availability, including cable viewers on Cartoon Network and broadcasts on HBO Max. The total viewing figure for the first episode increased to over 5.6 million viewers after two days, and nearly 15 million within two months. The series premiere was popular on social media, with the show's premiere being the number one trending topic on Twitter and Google Trends overnight on October 17. It also became the biggest series premiere on Cartoon Network since 2018. The third and fourth episodes averaged 4.1 million viewers on their first night, an increase of 14% over the previous week. The fifth episode had 4.8 million viewers on its first night, an increase of 15%, and was "the #1 active" on HBO Max for the week of October 31, 2022.

By November 4, the first five episodes averaged nearly 10 million viewers across cable and broadcast viewers; by December 27, the top six averaged 12.4 million. The sixth episode had 5.1 million viewers on its first night, while the seventh and final episode had 5.5 million viewers on its first night, including 1.021 million for its live broadcast on Cartoon Network, an overall increase 51% since the premiere. It became the fifth most-watched series to premiere simultaneously on HBO Max, behind The Last of Us, House of the Dragon and Euphoria.