James Gunn has a new update on Margot Robbie's DC Universe status as Harley Quinn.
The three-time Oscar nominee first made her debut as the iconic Batman antagonist with David Ayer's Suicide Squad, in which she was sent to Belle Reve by Ben Affleck's Dark Knight and subsequently recruited for the eponymous supervillain-based black ops team. She would subsequently reprise the role in the spinoff film Birds of Prey and Gunn's The Suicide Squad, which later became retrofitted to be part of his new DCU instead of the DC Extended Universe, though the chances of her return have remained uncertain.
Now, in honor of DC's Supervillain Month, Gunn and DC launched a new "The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon?" podcast series, co-hosted by the studio boss and stars Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee, during which the conversation turned to Robbie's potential return as Harley Quinn. Gunn began by acknowledging that the iconic character is "one of the more difficult things in this to justify as being canon" in his new universe, largely because of the lack of any information about a Joker existing in the DCU.
As for Robbie potentially playing the role in the future, Gunn raved about the star as "one of my favorite actors to work with," sharing that he loves her work as Harley Quinn. However, he also acknowledged that "I don't know if she wants to play Harley again," but that if she wants to return, he will "bend over backwards" to make it work canonically:
Steve Agee: [A fan] asks, “Are Harley and Joker already split in the DCU, because in Suicide Squad, it outright states their breakup.” He’s not mentioned by name.
James Gunn: He's not mentioned by name, so it doesn't outright say they’re broken up. So, I would say TBD. Harley's relationship to the Joker is specific. We definitely haven't established the Joker yet in the DCU at all. We've established Batman, we've already seen that he exists. We've seen him in Creature Commandos for a glimpse, but we don't know if Joker exists yet. And obviously, Joker is a part of Harley's past.
Jennifer Holland: She was a huge star when she played Harley Quinn for you, and she's just even becoming kind of the biggest female star in the world.
James Gunn: But if she doesn't, then I might go with somebody else, where I don't have to be attached to what happens to Harley in this movie. That's really the situation. So what I'm saying is, Margot is the one who has to decide whether or not Suicide Squad is canon. This is all on you. [Laughs] And again, it's difficult because she talks about her old boyfriend. That could be the Joker, or it could be somebody else. But if it's somebody else, that means Harley Quinn came out of a different type of situation than what we normally see Harley Quinn coming out of, which seems, for me, there are certain things that I see as incredibly important to certain characters.
Much to Gunn's points above, Quinn has proven to be one of the biggest characters from his Suicide Squad roster whose previous screen history makes their DCU future the trickiest to pull off. Ayer's original film very firmly established Robbie's version as being tied to both Affleck's Batman and Jared Leto's Joker, even if Birds of Prey gradually started phasing the latter out. Now, with Gunn's confirmation that the "old boyfriend" referred to in The Suicide Squad was not necessarily Joker, that also opens the door to completely severing her DCEU ties.
As the studio boss also denotes, with Batman also still yet to fully explode onto the DCU scene, thus far only existing in the background with Creature Commandos and Clayface, deciding on a canonical backstory for Robbie's Harley is even tougher. In Ayer's Suicide Squad, Quinn became her villainous self by jumping into the same vat of chemicals as Leto's Joker. In her original debut in Batman: The Animated Series and most comics, she was seduced by Joker to join him in his criminal empire, but not to the level of Ayer's film.
It certainly wouldn't be the first time, though, that Gunn nearly found himself pinned to a canonical corner in the DCU. Peacemaker season 1 memorably ended with cameos from Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Ezra Miller's The Flash, as well as silhouetted appearances from Affleck's Batman, Henry Cavill's Superman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, for the Justice League being late to help.
Gunn ultimately found a workaround by utilizing Peacemaker season 2's "Previously On" montage to retcon certain elements from season 1 for DCU canon, namely by reshooting said sequence to instead include Corenswet's Superman, Milly Alcock's Supergirl, Edi Gathegi's Mister Terrific, Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner and Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl for the Justice Gang. True to the original scene, only the latter two actually appear in the scene, while the rest were shown in backlit silhouettes.
Though Gunn indicates uncertainty about how the star feels about reprising the role, Robbie did confirm to ScreenRant in August 2025 that she was still interested in coming back as Harley Quinn in the DCU, describing the character as being "so fun to play." With her docket still plenty full, including with Tim Burton's Attack of the 50 Foot Woman remake, and Gunn yet to properly introduce Batman in the franchise, there is likely still a ways to go before an official decision is made on the Oscar nominee's future in the series.