Warner Bros. recently unveiled the cast of Suicide Squad in their costumes, and surprise surprise, by far the most talked about member of the team was Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about the new Harley, but what does her creator Bruce Timm have to say about her cinematic incarnation? Timm gave his first reactions to Polygon…
“It’s interesting. It’s weird. I’m very aware of how when a character that I created shows up in other media that they have to adapt it and do different things with it than I would do. So I’m very open to seeing what they’re going to do. I’m actually really excited. Just today […] I saw the first image of Harley Quinn from the Suicide Squad movie, and I thought ‘Woah. She looks actually pretty cute!’ I was actually kind of worried. I thought ‘Oh, she’s going to look really, really bizarre and skanky’ but nah, she’s not too bad. So I’m often mistaken.”
Phew, bizarre skankiness avoided! Timm also talked to io9 about Harley’s evolution from her early Batman: The Animated Series days, and why she’s remained popular…
“She started off as just like a one joke idea and she’s gained all these different dimensions from all the stories we did, and the stuff that happens in the comics. I think bottom line the most important thing about her is that she’s funny. One way or the other regardless of what her backstory is, or whether she’s in an abusive relationship with the Joker, or if she’s off on her own, or hanging out with Poison Ivy, or whether she’s a villain or a hero. I think bottomline her stories always have to be fun. That’s one of the things I like about the current comic. They understand that, they’re not treating her as another angsty bizarre superhero type character. She’s really weird and funny and kind of chaotic.”
Hopefully Robbie’s version of Harley adds some much-needed levity and chaos to a movie that otherwise looks very dishwater gray. Even if the rest of the movie flops, I have a feeling she may be a breakout mainstream character.
