Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn has become the awkward asterisk in James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe. The character will “almost certainly” return, according to Gunn, but the actor who played her across three films may have finished wielding the baseball bat.
During The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon? The Official Podcast, Gunn joined actors Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee to establish how much of his 2021 film survives the franchise reset. His ruling was fairly generous: most of The Suicide Squad remains canon, despite some minor timeline discrepancies.
“That settles it then,” Gunn said. “I think that The Suicide Squad is within the canon of the DCU.” He added one caveat concerning “what exactly is the future of Harley Quinn,” asking fans for some flexibility while DC Studios works out how that future will look.
Continuity has therefore been settled, apart from the part that has not been settled.
Would Margot Robbie return as Harley Quinn?
Gunn made clear that he would like Robbie back. He called her one of his favourite collaborators, described her as “kind of the biggest female star in the world” and said he would “bend over backwards” to keep her involved.
Enthusiasm is not the same as a contract, however. ComingSoon reported that Robbie is not committed to another appearance, leaving Gunn free to cast someone else if necessary.
“She’s just so crazy. I love her as Harley,” Gunn said. “I don’t know if she wants to play Harley again. She may be over that.”
Robbie debuted in the role in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad in 2016. She returned for Birds of Prey in 2020 and Gunn’s The Suicide Squad in 2021. Since then, Barbie has moved her into a different commercial category entirely, earning $1.448 billion worldwide. She has also starred in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and is set to lead Tim Burton’s Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman.
Her schedule is busier, her leverage is stronger and another Harley film would no longer be the automatic next step it once appeared to be.
Recasting would mark a change in Gunn’s position
In January 2024, Gunn said there were “no plans” to cast another actor as the DCU’s Harley Quinn, according to ComicBook.com. His latest comments stop well short of repeating that assurance.
Robbie has also publicly supported the idea of different performers taking over the character. Speaking to Variety in 2024, she said she wanted Harley to be passed between actresses in the same way prominent male characters often are.
“Harley’s so fun and can go in so many different directions,” Robbie said, describing that rotating approach as her “dream” for the role.
That makes recasting less of a rejection than it might otherwise appear. Harley Quinn has already proved unusually adaptable. Paul Dini and Bruce Timm created her for Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, before DC introduced her into its comics. Multiple animated versions followed long before Robbie put her stamp on the live-action character.
Harley exposes the DCU reboot’s fuzzy boundaries
Gunn’s DCU is not a complete clean break from the previous franchise. Viola Davis remains Amanda Waller, while John Cena continues as Peacemaker. Other actors, including Sean Gunn and Nathan Fillion, have played more than one DC character.
Harley creates a more difficult test. If The Suicide Squad remains canon but Robbie leaves, the DCU would retain the character’s history while changing the face attached to it. That is workable, although it makes the term “reboot” do rather more administrative work than usual.
The box office offers no simple answer. Robbie’s first Harley film, Suicide Squad, earned $749.2 million worldwide against a reported $175 million budget. Birds of Prey made $205.4 million against $82 million, while The Suicide Squad earned $168.7 million against $185 million.
The latter arrived during the pandemic and was released simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max, so its theatrical total needs that context. Even so, Harley’s two most recent films did not approach the commercial scale of Robbie’s later success with Barbie.
DC Studios now faces a straightforward choice with inconvenient details: persuade one of Hollywood’s most in-demand stars to return, recast a character Gunn clearly wants to preserve, or leave Harley on the sidelines until the answer becomes easier. For now, only the character’s eventual return looks close to certain.
