See Lady Gaga As Harley Quinn For Joker 2
This digital image shows Lady Gaga as a new version of Harley Quinn.
Lady Gaga is playing Dr. Harleen Quinzel in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux and MovieWeb has produced concept art portraying her as the supervillain/antihero Harley Quinn. The image below fuses elements of Margot Robbie’s portrayal of the fan-favorite character in the DC Universe, but swapping out the Babylon actress for the famed singer-songwriter. The release of Joker: Folie à Deux is still months away, so it is anyone’s guess whether this is how Lady Gaga will appear as Harley Quinn.
In the image, Lady Gaga is outfitted with the multi-colored pigtails often associated with Harley Quinn, as well as a tight red bustier-style outfit. While she does not have the chalk-white skin the character is sometimes portrayed with, she does appear pale and has a teardrop-style black mark near one eye. All in all, it is a pretty standard portrayal of the character.
However, there is no assurance that Joker: Folie à Deux will be depicting a regular issue Harley Quinn with Lady Gaga. The sequel to the 2019 Joaquin Phoenix film was noted for bringing an unusual level of realism to the Batman mythos, eschewing traditional portrayals of superheroes and villains. Instead, it focused on concepts of institutional wealth, poverty, and mental health, but also about Joaquin Phoenix cackling very loudly.
The first Joker movie was almost immediately controversial, with speculation that it might somehow inspire real-life violence as well as stigmatize those suffering from mental illness as potentially violent criminals (when studies regularly show that they are more likely to be the victims of both violent and non-violent crime). While critics were largely divided about the artistic merits of the film, it did win the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.
More importantly for its chance of being greenlit for a sequel starring Lady Gaga, Joker made over a billion dollars at the global box office, becoming the first R-rated movie to do so. At the moment, it is one of the very few DC Universe movies not under the aegis of new DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran and is unlikely to be wrapped up into whatever new continuity they are whipping up.
In fact, the future of the new DC Universe is very uncertain at the moment, with James Gunn frequently issuing clarifications via social media that just end up confusing fans more. However, we do know that Margot Robbie will be sticking around the DCU, so that makes at least two actresses playing Harley Quinn at once. On the other hand, it was not that long ago that we were fully prepared for Ben Affleck, Robert Pattison, and Michael Keaton all playing Batman, so it is not that much of a stretch.
Regardless of how Lady Gaga chooses to portray Harley Quinn, we have high hopes. Though the singer-songwriter has been in relatively few movies in her career, she has already made critical waves with her roles in A Star is Born and House of Gucci. We’ll have to see how it goes with Joker: Folie à Deux.
