Harley Quinn & Margot Robbie’s DCU Future Gets Definitive Update From James Gunn

James Gunn has a new update on Margot Robbie’s DC Universe status.

The three-time Oscar nominee first made her debut as the iconic Batman antagonist with David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, in which she was sent to Belle Reve by Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight and subsequently recruited for the eponymous supervillain-based black ops team. She would subsequently reprise the role in the spinoff film Birds of Prey and Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which later became retrofitted to be part of his new DCU instead of the DC Extended Universe, though the chances of her return have remained uncertain.

Now, in honor of DC’s Supervillain Month, Gunn and DC launched a new “The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon?” podcast series, co-hosted by the studio boss and stars Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee, during which the conversation turned to Robbie’s potential return as Harley Quinn. Gunn began by acknowledging that the iconic character is “one of the more difficult things in this to justify as being canon” in his new universe, largely because of the lack of any information about a Joker existing in the DCU.

As for Robbie potentially playing the role in the future, Gunn raved about the star as “one of my favorite actors to work with,” sharing that he loves her work as Harley Quinn. However, he also acknowledged that “I don’t know if she wants to play Harley again,” but that if she wants to return, he will “bend over backwards” to make it work canonically:

Steve Agee: [A fan] asks, “Are Harley and Joker already split in the DCU, because in Suicide Squad, it outright states their breakup.” He’s not mentioned by name.

James Gunn: He’s not mentioned by name so it doesn’t outright say they’re broken up. So, I would say TBD. Harley’s relationship to the Joker’s specific. We definitely haven’t established the Joker yet in the DCU at all. We’ve established Batman, we’ve already seen that he exists. We’ve seen him in Creature Commandos for a glimpse, but we don’t know if Joker exists yet. And obviously, Joker is a part of Harley’s past.

Jennifer Holland: She was a huge star when she played Harley Quinn for you, and she’s just even becoming kind of the biggest female star in the world.

James Gunn: But if she doesn’t, then I might go with somebody else, where I don’t have to be attached to what happens to Harley in this movie. That’s really the situation. So what I’m saying is, Margot is the one who has to decide whether or not Suicide Squad is canon. This is all on you. [Laughs] And again, it’s difficult because she talks about her old boyfriend. That could be the Joker, or it could be somebody else. But if it’s somebody else, that means Harley Quinn came out of a different type of situation than what we normally see Harley Quinn coming out of, which seems, for me, there are certain things that I see incredibly important to certain characters.

Steve Agee: [A fan] asks, “Are Harley and Joker already split in the DCU, because in Suicide Squad, it outright states their breakup.” He’s not mentioned by name.

James Gunn: He’s not mentioned by name so it doesn’t outright say they’re broken up. So, I would say TBD. Harley’s relationship to the Joker’s specific. We definitely haven’t established the Joker yet in the DCU at all. We’ve established Batman, we’ve already seen that he exists. We’ve seen him in Creature Commandos for a glimpse, but we don’t know if Joker exists yet. And obviously, Joker is a part of Harley’s past.

Jennifer Holland: She was a huge star when she played Harley Quinn for you, and she’s just even becoming kind of the biggest female star in the world.

James Gunn: But if she doesn’t, then I might go with somebody else, where I don’t have to be attached to what happens to Harley in this movie. That’s really the situation. So what I’m saying is, Margot is the one who has to decide whether or not Suicide Squad is canon. This is all on you. [Laughs] And again, it’s difficult because she talks about her old boyfriend. That could be the Joker, or it could be somebody else. But if it’s somebody else, that means Harley Quinn came out of a different type of situation than what we normally see Harley Quinn coming out of, which seems, for me, there are certain things that I see incredibly important to certain characters.

The DC Universe is a multimedia franchise based on DC Comics and its roster of iconic heroes and villains. The DCU has inspired an ongoing cinematic universe led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, a previous cinematic universe helmed by Zack Snyder, and several independent movies and TV shows.