Arrow's Suicide Squad: Is That Harley Quinn?

About halfway through the just-released teaser for March 19th's Arrow episode, titled "Suicide Squad," fans can get their first look at a mysterious, disheveled female character who seems like she might be the Batman villain Harley Quinn. With the pale skin and the mountain of tangled hair, the woman facing away from the camera immediately caught our eye when the camera lingered on her unmoving form for a long moment. Earlier today, of course, Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim teased that there was a "special announcement" coming relating to the season's nineteenth episode. It's not unreasonable to think that this character, apparently making her debut in the upcoming sixteenth episode of the season, could play a role in that announcement and that episode.

So far, IMDb doesn't have any listing for an actress who could match the description of this image; the only new, female characters credited are a "refugee woman," played by Zara Durrani (who will appear on tonight's episode of USA Network's Psych) and Allison Riley, who plays "Tech." Harley Quinn has been a key part of the Suicide Squad monthly comic thorughout its run in the New 52. Previous, female members of the Suicide Squad (or women who have worked closely with them) include Nightshade, Cameron Chase, Duchess, Enchantress, Oracle, Poison Ivy, Dove, Cheetah, Plastique and Vixen. Arrow is currently juggling a number of plot threads, including one that sees longtime Batman villain Ra's al Ghul and his League of Assassins going after Oliver and Sara...but that story development has been justified as having an in-comics rationale. "It really all goes back to Merlyn because Malcolm Merlyn, in his origin, he's part of the League of Assassins," said Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg. "Even though a lot of people associate Ra's al Ghul with Batman–which is true because that's where he started–he really encompasses a lot more than that. So to have our primary villain–to not be able to discuss where he came from? Geoff Johns and everybody at DC agreed that that was such a big part of it." It might be difficult to sell such a rationale for Harley, a very definitively Batman-rooted character, although her ties to the Squad are strong. Currently, Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner's Harley Quinn is one of DC Comics's best-selling titles.