‘Harley Quinn’ Animated Teaser Pokes Fun at DC Movies

Deadpool isn’t the only one who can poke fun at DC’s dour approach to superhero storytelling.

In the newly-released teaser for the Kaley Cuoco-led Harley Quinn series, Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) makes a crack at the expense of the company employing her.

“I thought we were supposed to make a show that’s super gritty and bleak, and depressing,” Poison Ivy says in the teaser. “You know — like a DC thing.”

“That is an excellent way to make television and film,” Harley says, her eyes wide and staring into the camera, before promising that her series won’t be anything like that.

While the joke is likely directed at movies like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, the timing is interesting: the teaser for Harley Quinn was screened at the world premiere of DC Universe’s ultra-violent and brooding Titans series, based on the Teen Titans franchise.

This kind of meta humor is hardly new. Even before Teen Titans Go to the Movies broke down superhero movie tropes for laughs, jokes about Batman v Superman had appeared on the Teen Titans Go! TV series.

Cuoco leads a voice cast which includes Lake Bell (In a World…, Wet Hot American Summer series, Childrens Hospital), Alan Tudyk (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Powerless), Ron Funches (Powerless), JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), Wanda Sykes (Black-ish), Giancarlo Esposito (Bob Roberts, Breaking Bad), Natalie Morales (Bojack Horseman), Jim Rash (Mike Tyson Mysteries), Diedrich Bader (Veep), Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep), Chris Meloni (Happy!, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

Several of those actors have already done work for DC, including Tudyk and Funches’s Powerless roles, Meloni in Man of Steel, and Esposito in Batman: Assault on Arkham. Esposito has expressed interest in doing more comic book work, saying that he would have liked to appear in Suicide Squad if he had been given the chance to reprise his Assault on Arkham role.

This is the first official footage released from the series, which has been shrouded in mystery relative to other DC Universe projects like Titans, Young Justice: Outsiders, and Doom Patrol, which all updated fans on their progress pretty regularly along the way.

Harley Quinn, based on the DC characters, focuses on Harley Quinn who has finally broken things off once and for all with the Joker and attempts to make it on her own as the criminal Queenpin of Gotham City. The series features Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and a whole cast of heroes and villains, old and new, from the DC Universe.

After debuting in Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn’s popularity has skyrocketed and she has become a mainstay in DC comic books, video games, and TV shows.

The series comes from Powerless producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, as well as Dean Lorey and Cuoco, who will produce through her Yes, Norman Productions.