Margot Robbie is making the rounds right now supporting her new film “Terminal” (read our review), and as expected, people are asking the actress about her biggest role as Harley Quinn in the DC film universe. As we reported a while ago, Harley will be the focus of the upcoming team-up film directed by Cathy Yan and written by Christina Hodson. However, we had no idea what was truly in store for the spin-off, until now.
According to an interview with the actress from Collider, they’re going R-rated with Harley Quinn:
“I pitched the idea of an R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don’t ever make her do a standalone film. She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang. I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it.”
Now, if you read that and think that Robbie seems to have a lot of control over the film, you’re not wrong. Judging by what she says, it appears that Warner Bros. is letting her go crazy with Harley, and Robbie is going to do her own thing. One of the things that she definitely wanted was to hire a female director.
Robbie explains, “And then of course having a female director to tell that story. And giving a female director the chance to do big budget stuff. They always get ‘Here’s the tiny little film’…So it was a hugely important to find a female director for this, if possible. But at the end of the day — male, female — the best director gets the job and Cathy was the best director.”
So, it sounds like we’re getting an R-rated, girl gang film featuring Harley and some of DC’s other ladies. Rumors were that it could feature characters from “Birds of Prey,” which might include Batgirl, Black Canary, Huntress, and others. Maybe we’ll even get a chance to see the long-awaited live-action Harley/Poison Ivy relationship that has been hinted at heavily in the comics?
However, the R-rated spin-off wasn’t the only DC news that Robbie is talking about. The actress also spoke to Moviefone, where she denied reports of her involvement in the multitude of other Harley Quinn films, which included “Gotham City Sirens,” “Harley vs. Joker,” and on and on.
“But I was not a part of those versions, I was always focused on this one with Christina… I know that they were exploring ‘Gotham City Sirens’ with David Ayer, and I know they were exploring a Joker and Harley Quinn movie, and they were exploring doing I don’t know what else. I wasn’t a part of those,” said Robbie.
That comment will further confuse fans who are trying to piece together what is left of the DC film universe. How could David Ayer make a “Gotham City Sirens” film without Robbie? Were they going to recast? Or was the film nothing more than a pipedream?
Whatever the case, it appears that the only true Harley Quinn movie (outside of “Suicide Squad 2”) is the R-rated spin-off. And believe it or not, this could actually be decent. Or a colossal failure. You never know with Warner Bros.