‘Suicide Squad’ Set Photo Reveals Harley Quinn’s Origin Story

Margot Robbie’s stunt double in Suicide Squad, Ingrid Kleinig, added a revealing photo to her Instagram, then deleted her entire Instagram later on, presumably when she realized she had posted an actual spoiler. Here’s a screengrab of her Instagram before it was deleted. (SPOILER)

That’s Ace Chemicals. Not only is it the origin of The Joker’s appearance and insanity in some of the comics, but it also figures into one of the origin stories of Harley Quinn. We already knew — thanks to a leaked set video — Robbie would appear as Dr. Harleen Quinzel at some point in the film, and we also suspected — thanks to that set video — that they were going to show The Joker as the abusive boyfriend he is. We didn’t know which origin story they would use to depict Harleen’s transformation into Harley.

Now, with the presence of Ace Chemicals, those details are coming together, and it appears they’re going to use the origin story from 2012’s Suicide Squad volume 4, issue 7. In that issue, The Joker threw Dr. Harleen Quinzel into the same chemical bath that made him. Afterwards, she’s confused and asks if this is real, to which he says nothing is real and she can do whatever she wants. And that’s how their abusive relationship starts, with her going on to seek revenge against everyone who locked up her boyfriend in Arkham Asylum.

On the one hand, I like that director David Ayer isn’t shying away from a heavy subject. On the other hand, I’m already bracing for all the HOT TAKES the internet is going to Play-Doh Fun Factory™ out of their backsides about how problematic this is.

(Via Movie Pilot, Birth Movies Death, Comics Alliance, and Ingrid Kleinig)

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