So far, Harley Quinn has appeared in three different DCEU movies- Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey and the upcoming revamp of an idea from 2016 titled The Suicide Squad, where Harley will interact with another team of villains turned into unwilling heroes led by Amanda Waller. Harley’s complicated past makes it hard to nail her down as either one of the good guys or one of the bad and her newfound self-awareness from Birds of Prey creates more room for her to continue developing, now that she’s free from her past.
Over the last few years, fans have seen Harley grow into herself and move on from the influence the Joker had on her. She’s gone through as much personal growth as a former doctor-turned-delinquent can, but using her as a lynchpin to tie the DCEU movies together would allow for her to completely eliminate the parts of herself she no longer wishes to hold on to and become the saving grace for the messy DC Universe.
Bird of Prey is where Harley’s true journey began and she started acting almost like a normal person. She was released from her abusive relationship with the Joker, allowed herself time to grieve the loss of someone she loved, got drunk, bought a pet and even ate cheese straight from the can in order to cope with the tragic events going on in her life.
Harley’s identity was deeply rooted in her connection with the Joker, since he’s the one who transformed her into “Harley Quinn” and made her leave Harleen Quinzel in the dust. Letting go of the person who molded her into someone entirely new was a major step in Harley’s character development, because the absence of the Joker made room for something even better. Now that Harley is turning into the person she chooses to be, instead of the person the Joker wants her to be, her already compelling character arc has gotten even better.
Harley has had a complicated life, long before she ever met the Joker. She reveals in Birds of Prey that her own father sold her for a couple of beers, then ditched her at a nunnery where old religious ladies used corporal punishment to keep the young girls in line. Despite all this, Harley still went to college and earned her PhD, and the rest of her narrative in Birds of Prey proves to fans that she’s more than just a seductive personality, or the piece of meat men often see her as.
In fact, most of the Joker’s best criminal feats were all thanks to Harley’s genius in coming up with well-devised schemes, even though the Joker would never admit this to anyone. The honest truth is that Harley Quinn is brilliant. Fans know by now that Harley Quinn can take on many diverse roles and eventually come out unscathed on the other side. Whether that be the Joker’s sidepiece, the unexpected caretaker of a child thief, or even the leader of an all-female vigilante group, Harley Quinn steals the show every time.
Given the huge amount of popularity Margot Robbie has brought to her character Harley Quinn, the DCEU would be missing some huge opportunities if they didn’t start using her more in other films. A lot of the DCEU characters don’t really seem to be existing within the same world and the underlying sense of disconnect is almost always present within DC films. Using Harley as a way to start remedying the chaos would be a lot easier than people think.
Ben Affleck’s Batman made a brief appearance in Suicide Squad when he captured Harley and took her to prison and Jared Leto’s Joker came back to haunt Batman in a dream during Justice League. That means that Harley is also alive and kicking somewhere within the same universe that films like Batman vs. Superman and Justice League take place. Neither of these movies did particularly well, even though the DCEU was working with classic DC favorites, but perhaps the only thing they needed was an appearance from Harley Quinn.
Now, Suicide Squad wasn’t exactly a smash hit either, but most fans loved Harley’s role in the film more than the rest of it and couldn’t exactly blame her for the rest of the movie's shortcomings. Giving Harley a bigger role within the DCEU could be the final push the franchise needs in order to bring more coherency to their future films. Seeing Harley fight alongside other DC favorites like Wonder Woman would definitely be something unique, especially since Harley has already undergone so much change in just two movies.
It’s still up in the air what exactly will happen to Harley in the upcoming film The Suicide Squad, but giving her the chance to fight alongside some of the DCEU’s true heroes in the future would make for a twist that nobody expected.
The Suicide Squad premieres August 6, 2021