Beloved Harley Quinn Voice Actor Fired And Recast Over Political Controversy
Tara Strong is one of the most popular and prominent voice actors in the business, and DC Comics fans love her for voicing Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City as well as assorted animated films such as Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay and Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (one of our favorites). Originally, she was going to be voicing the character of Bill on the independent and partially crowdfunding Boxtown series. However, she has been fired and the role recast due to Strong’s actions that incited controversy among social media in regards to the Isreal-Palestine conflict on X.
Harley Quinn voice actor Tara Strong was recast in the upcoming animated series Boxtown, and her recent comments about the Isreal-Palestine conflict on social media may be the reason why.
Like many celebs, Tara Strong feels very strongly about that conflict. Allegedly, the controversial activity on X that got her fired was liking a post that equated all Muslims to the Hamas terrorist group. That tweet also read “Islam is a real, clear and present danger,” and while Strong eventually unliked the post, the damage to her career was already done.
To make matters worse, the voice-acting legend only found out that she had gotten the ax from Boxtown when she read their post on X announcing the recasting of Bill. She responded directly to that post, and her reply arguably made the controversy worse when she wrote that she was “fired for being Jewish.” She also sarcastically wrote “glad I helped you get your Kickstarter money” and for the makers of the show to “Please lose my email address.”
Boxtown is set in a film noir-esque city and features a bad detective named Tim who teams up with a child sidekick named Bill (originally voiced by Tara Strong).
Strictly speaking, Tara Strong was wrong about the crowdfunding platform: rather than Kickstarter, Boxtown’s creators turned to the similar crowdfunding platform Indiegog in order to raise enough money to make the series a reality.
The company behind the show is Bandit Mill Studios, which is comprised of various independent animators. Raising money via crowdfunding helps the studio and its animators retain their independence, and it also seemed downright necessary amid all of the animated productions getting canceled or (for the completed ones) getting removed entirely by streamers like Netflix and Max.
What is Boxtown actually about, though? It’s set in a film noir-esque city and features a bad detective named Tim (voiced by Gravity Falls creator and general animation legend Alex Hirsch) who teams up with a child sidekick named Bill (originally voiced by Tara Strong).
Allegedly, the controversial activity on X that got her fired was liking a post that equated all Muslims to the Hamas terrorist group.
The series seems like it’s going to be partially a parody of the Batman concept as it showcases just how weird it would be for a grown detective to solve cases and fight crime alongside a child sidekick (even one as obsessed with true crime as Bill is).
Boxtown sounds like a lot of fun, and we hope that it is a major success that paves the way for more independent animated series and even feature films. The talent involved sounds amazing (we’re particularly excited to hear more voicework from Alex Hirsch), and it’s a shame that Tara Strong is no longer involved with the project.
However, we’re sadly confident she’ll have company in the future as more celebs lose gigs due to their controversial social media posts over the current conflict.
