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Following her brief time with the Birds of Prey, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is back to hanging out with Task Force X, having made her DC Extended Universe debut in 2016’s Suicide Squad. This time around, James Gunn took the directorial reins on the R-rated The Suicide Squad, and he was clearly impressed with Robbie’s talents. Why is that? Because the biggest action scene Gunn’s ever written is centered on her.
James Gunn spoke about his experience working with Margot Robbie on The Suicide Squad with AP News, saying that with the exception of singing, “she can do anything.” Gunn then said the following about Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn:
She embodies the character. She’s able to do the comedy. She’s able to do the drama. And physically, she is a pure athlete and is able to do these stunts in such a graceful, magnificent, beautiful way. And so I wrote the biggest action scene I’ve ever done all around (Robbie’s character) Harley, and it was so fun to create just on every level from working with the stunt guys all the way through to working with her. It’s probably my favorite four minutes of film I’ve ever shot before.
A gigantic action sequence focused on Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, you say? Color me intrigued. James Gunn didn’t elaborate on what sort of shenanigans Harley gets into during this sequence, but if I had to guess, this is probably the moment in The Suicide Squad where she escapes there captors all on her own. This leads to the amusing moment, as seen in the movie’s first trailer, when Harley approaches Joel Kinamman’s Rick Flag and Idris Elba’s Bloodsport right before they and the other Suicide Squad members kick off their mission to rescue Harley. Whether this is indeed the action sequence Gunn is talking about or it’s something else, I can’t wait to see what happens over these four minutes.
James Gunn is the third filmmaker to have put his own spin on the DCEU’s Harley Quinn, following David Ayer and Cathy Yan, and Gunn agreed with Margot Robbie’s sentiment that the character works best as a “catalyst for chaos.” As one would expect from the star of a superhero movie, Robbie got into tip top physical shape to reprise Harley, although she ditched the weight-lifting in favor of other kinds of exercise. It’s unclear if any of Harley’s exploits in Suicide Squad or Birds of Prey will be referenced in The Suicide Squad, but at the very least, we can count on her unique brand of craziness spicing up the story.
As for who’s joining Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn The Suicide Squad, that lineup includes Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, John Cena’s Peacemaker, Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang and Peter Capaldi’s Thinker, who Robbie specifically complimented in a recent interview. The movie follows Task Force X traveling to Corto Maltese to destroy Jotunheim, a Nazi-era prison complex where horrific experiments have been conducted. Naturally though, the mission becomes wilder than anyone anticipated, which includes a giant starfish being thrown into the mix.
The Suicide Squad arrives in both theaters and on HBO Max (which you can subscribe to with this link) August 6, and the Peacemaker spinoff series will follow in January 2022. Don’t forget to browse through our upcoming DC movies guide to learn what else the DCEU franchise has coming up.
