Margot Robbie’s interpretation of Harley Quinn has been an undisputed high point of the DC Film Universe ever since Warner Bros. tried to launch a connected world with Man of Steel. The Focus and Bombshell star is perfectly cast as the unpredictable prankster, and she has stood out in an uneven Suicide Squad, then carried the role over to a Birds of Prey movie that she produced. It’s no surprise whatsoever that when James Gunn pitched a Suicide Squad story to DC as his first movie in this world, he not only wrote in Harley Quinn, but made sure that Robbie was part of the ensemble, continuity be damned. And Robbie appears to be bringing her penchant for physical action to The Suicide Squad, so fans of her work should start getting excited.
The trailers for The Suicide Squad have been heavy on both the explosive action and the introduction of characters, both old and new, to the team that Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is putting together. And when there are fights, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is smack dab in the middle of them. On the set of James Gunn’s movie, producer Peter Safran spoke with CinemaBlend and spotlighted a sequence built around Harley that he predicts will be the talk of the town once the movie finally starts to screen. Safran said:
At one point, (Harley Quinn) gets captured by Luna (Juan Diego Botto) and his team, and then she has a big escape scene, and it will be one of your favorite scenes in the movie. It is just an incredible thing that James and Guy Norris, our coordinator -- he's our coordinator and second director -- came up with together, and it's fantastic. It goes through several different arenas on her sequence to get out of there. It's full on, big-time action and she's been working with Guy and with James. She's incredibly physical, so she's doing a lot of this stuff herself. … It's a big, fun action scene.
It will have to work hard to top the funhouse fight that concludes Birds of Prey. To that end, we spoke with Safran about Margot Robbie’s ownership over the role of Harley. It’s possible that James Gunn possibly could have attempted to recast the role if he wanted the character in The Suicide Squad, but she was unavailable. And as Sarfran explained to CinemaBlend:
I think she's owned it from day one on Squad. When I first saw Squad, like a lot of the fans, you're just drawn to her. She's incredible in that role. So I think she very much drove, I understand, the idea of doing a Birds of Prey movie. That's why she's a producer on it. She developed that idea with Christina Hodson, the writer, so I think she really does have ownership of it. And when James, because James wrote the script without talking to any of the actors. And when she read it, she had a couple of really good thoughts that... none of them were big story stuff, but just things that made Harley ‘Harley,’ for her. I think she does feel a sense of pride and ownership in how that character has evolved. … She looks a little different, feels a little different, wardrobe is definitely different, but I think you really recognize the Harley that you love from it. She's still... She's a fucking crazy girl and I think you really feel it in this. And I think James wrote to it, for my money, in the best fashion that it could possibly be. I love her character in this movie.
At this point, we could easily see Margot Robbie reinventing Harley Quinn with each new movie, and appearing as the charming menace that she manages to be for years to come. So long as she is able to maintain the physicality that’s integral to Harley’s performances. Speaking with The Suicide Squad producer Charles Roven about Robbie’s contributions to and development of the DC universe, he told CinemaBlend:
She's quite a unique character in the sense that, she's a bit off the wall. You just don't know exactly what she's going to do in that crazy head of hers, but whatever it is, in its own way, it's going to be charming. But it could also be lethal. … Margo's really an amazing individual in the sense that she's very focused as an actor, constantly working on our character, and always comes totally prepared. And yet, she has a tremendous sense of fun about how she does what she does. She's also incredibly physical. She has incredible physical abilities. She's very limber, she's very athletic. And so she's somebody who does a tremendous amount of her own action work. We just want to make sure that what she does doesn't put her in too much of a place to get hurt!
Margot Robbie gives her all for the part, and that’s bound to make The Suicide Squad that much more enjoyable. We can’t wait to see this action set piece, specifically, as well as the whole of The Suicide Squad once it lands in theaters and on HBO Max beginning on August 6. Also, bookmark our guide to Upcoming DC Movies so you can stay up to date on all of the cool movies coming from Warner Bros. in the years ahead.
