James Gunn is finally ready to tell everyone what is and isn’t considered DC Universe canon from The Suicide Squad, and that includes Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn.
In a special one-off episode of the DC Studios Showcase podcast titled The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon?, Gunn is joined by Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee to put The Suicide Squad on trial. TBH, it’s a whole lot of “maybe it is canon, but I’m not ready to confirm yet,” so do with that as you may.
Case in point: when Robbie’s Harley Quinn came up, Gunn said, “I think Harley is actually one of the more difficult things in this to justify as being canon in the DCU.”
The DC Studios co-head pointed out that Robbie’s Harley Quinn’s “relationship to the Joker is specific. We definitely haven’t established the Joker yet in the DCU at all.” (You also haven’t established Batman yet either, outside of that Creature Commandos cameo.)
Gunn pointed out that the relationship between Harley and the Joker is very specific, and the Joker hasn’t been established in the DCU yet. The filmmaker reminded viewers that only Batman has been established in his cameo on the animated series Creature Commandos.
“Margot Robbie is one of my favorite actors to work with. She is so good in the movie. She’s so crazy. I love her as Harley. I don’t know if she wants to play Harley again. She may be over that.” Gunn added. “Harley is a character I’m almost certainly going to use in the DCU. If Margot wants to play her, I’ll bend over backwards to explain that in the world. But if she doesn’t, then I might go with somebody else where I don’t have to be attached to what happens to Harley in this movie.”
Robbie first appeared as Harley Quinn in 2016’s Suicide Squad. She went on to reprise the role a further two times in the DC Extended Universe before it ended in 2023: 2020’s Birds of Prey and 2021’s The Suicide Squad.
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