Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has had a truly one-of-a-kind arc in the DC Extended Universe, with her character becoming a breakout hit after 2016’s Suicide Squad and 2020’s Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). This weekend, audiences will get to see a whole new chapter of her story when The Suicide Squad arrives in theaters and on HBO Max — and according to Robbie, it will place the character on a whole new footing. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the actress teased where Harley is at in her life at the start of the film, and that in particular, she’s completely moved on from her relationship with The Joker (Jared Leto).
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“She’s definitely independent from Mister J for the first time,” Robbie explained. “Even though in Birds of Prey, they’d broken up at the start, she was still very much not OK with not being with him. In this one, she’s not even thinking about him, which is really fun and just a new, interesting mindset and place for Harley to be in in her life. She’s looking for new love, and she’s looking in all the wrong places.”
This echoes comments that Robbie previously made to ComicBook.com, with the actress revealing that The Suicide Squad will show a new and meaningful angle to her characterization.
“You get to see another side of Harley [in The Suicide Squad],” Robbie explained to ComicBook.com in 2020. “It’s interesting. You keep getting to meet her at different points in her life, as if a couple of years have gone by. Of course, the films aren’t directly connected, but as an actor, I can map it out in a chronological sense. So, it’s fun to see ‘Okay, what was she like a couple of years ago when she was with Mister J?’ ‘What is she like now, after they’ve broken up? And what is she going to be like in another couple of years’ time?’ I love seeing her at these different stages of her life.”
While each film involving Harley has still stayed true to her wild character, The Suicide Squad approached her DC Comics lore from a unique — but familiar — place.
“To me, Paul Dini’s original take on Harley is fantastic, and she’s been an incredibly well-written character in the animated movies and the comics,” writer-director James Gunn explained during the film’s recent press conference. “And so, it was about being true to who she innately is as a character. She, to me, belongs on the wall besides Spider-Man and Superman and Wonder Woman and Captain America. She’s one of those characters that sings and has a personality. And so, it was about being able to fully translate that to a motion picture. And also see her grow and make what, for her, are healthy choices, which to a normal person, some of her choices in the movie may seem absolutely insane, but for her, they’re growth. Coming from a very, very, very toxic relationship and wanting to put an end to those types of things for herself. So I think that’s really what it was, just trying to give her the full life of the chaotic trickster on screen and letting her be every inch Harley Quinn that the world deserves.”
The Suicide Squad is set to debut in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6th.
