"Are you the devil?" Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is looking up at Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Harley is in a cage, in the heart of a maximum – and I do mean MAXIMUM – security prison. Waller is looking down on her, holding all of the power. And yet, Quinn smiles that devilish smile, and its sends chills down your spine.
Warner Bros. just held a splashy, sensory-overloading panel at Comic-Con on behalf of its upcoming slate, and the second half was dedicated to the expansion of the DC Cinematic Universe – particularly, the two movies that will open next year. And while the footage from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice already hit the Web, David Ayer’s Suicide Squad needs to follow suit… because it was better. And Harley Quinn stole the entire show.
Margot Robbie of the Wolf of Wall Street plays Harley Quinn in David Ayer’s take on this villainous super team. And she’s the wild card, the unpredictable force on a team of unpredictable killers. And Ayer seems to know it. From the first moment we meet her, the camera is following guards as they approach Harley’s isolated cage, and she’s doing gymnastics in the cage that have her dangling upside down. The plot of the movie has Amanda Waller (Davis) recruiting "the worst of the worst" for a secret mission. And the montage of action shots that follow placed so much emphasis on Harley Quinn, she comes away looking like the star of the film. (No disrespect to Will Smith, who also lent a massive presence as Deadshot).
We saw video reenactments of scenes that played out in paparazzi footage, with Harley marching through war-torn streets using a baseball bat as a pretend shotgun. We saw Batman hanging on the back of The Joker’s ride, with Harley cracking wise, "I hope you’ve got insurance." Her accent is perfect, and she looks like the more chaotic things get, the more engaged she becomes.
The clip ends with our first full look at Jared Leto as The Joker, and that was awesome. But I left the panel thinking about Harley Quinn, and wondering just how devastating her portrayal will be in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. Something about her getting loose in the DC Universe unnerves me. And I think that’s exactly how Ayer and Margot Robbie want it. Suicide Squad opens in theaters on August 5, 2016.
