Margot Robbie Is Leaving The DC Universe
Margot Robbie looks to be hanging up her giant hammer.
James Gunn’s upcoming The Suicide Squad might be the last time we see Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn for a while. The actress says she needs a break from playing the character and that she doesn’t know when she’ll be returning to the role.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Margot Robbie said filming The Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey back-to-back was really tiring. She also noted that and playing Harley is “exhausting,” so some time off from the character is something she’s looking forward to. “I don’t know when we’re next going to see her. I’m just as intrigued as everyone else is,” she told the publication.
Margot Robbie first took on the role of Joker’s accomplice and on-again, off-again girlfriend in 2016’s Suicide Squad. At the time she described Quinn as one of the Squad’s most manipulative members. She also called her relationship with Joker “incredibly dysfunctional” adding that Quinn is, “mad about him – like, literally, mad. She’s crazy. But she loves him. And it’s a really unhealthy, dysfunctional, addictive relationship.
In 2020, Margot Robbie took on the role once more in Birds of Prey with a performance filled with suitably manic energy, which may why she feels so exhausted. Unfortunately, her time off means there will be no Birds of Prey sequel and the Gotham City Sirens movie, with Harley teaming up with Catwoman and Poison Ivy probably won’t be moving forward anytime soon.
If The Suicide Squad is Margot Robbie’s last outing as Harley Quinn, it could be the last time we see the character at all. To keep the story in line with Zack Snyder’s Justice League, DC might just decide to kill Harley – literally. During the epilogue of Snyder’s film, a conversation between Batman and Joker set in the Knightmare timeline reveals that Harley Quinn died in Batman’s arms. So it would be a fitting way to draw the curtain on the supervillain.
When Harley’s death was mentioned during the Entertainment Weekly interview, Margot Robbie appeared to be shocked. “I didn’t know that. [Laughs] Thank you for telling me!” Genuinely flabbergasted over the reveal, the Oscar nominee seemed to be at peace with her character’s death saying that the DC films are a lot like the comics. Each movie is its own sort of thing, which works in the comic book world, so it makes perfect sense.
Margot Robbie also added that DC films are not like Marvel where everything is more obviously linked linearly. In the DC Extended Universe, there are so many adjacent stories, worlds, and movies happening at the same time, just like there are in the comics. This means what one director decides to do doesn’t dictate what another is able to do with the world.
Margot Robbie fans can see the actress suit up as Harley Quinn on more time in The Suicide Squad. Directed by James Gunn, the story follows the imprisoned convicts of Belle Reve penitentiary who are sent as members of Task Force X to the South American island of Corto Maltese to destroy Jotunheim. The Nazi-era prison and laboratory held political prisoners and conducted experiments on them. But during their mission, the squad comes into conflict with Starro, a giant, telepathic alien starfish.
The Suicide Squad will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6, 2021.
