8 Reasons Why A Joker & Harley Quinn Movie Is A Terrible Idea

Hey, WB? Can we maybe not romanticise this??

by Ewan Paterson
Harley Quinn Joker No
Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. have pulled what can only be seen as a 'mad one' this week, having announced not just one, but two Joker films - one connected to the DCEU, the other not - and also that Matt Reeves' Batman film, a project that Ben Affleck looks set to depart, wasn't but then would be a DCEU feature. Hard times.

Oh, and all of this might have put said universe in jeopardy too, so that's something to note.

Yep, everything is most definitely not coming up Milhouse as far as DC are concerned. Their already congested cinematic slate - now split between connected and self-contained series - is announcing terrible idea after terrible idea, of which Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's planned Joker/Harley feature sits chief among.

There are so many reasons why this just isn’t okay, and even more to be worried about WB’s attitude to the DCU in general. Firstly, Ficarra and Requa’s most recent project was Crazy, Stupid Love, a romantic comedy that starred Steve Carrell and Kevin Bacon. This isn’t the duo you tap to explore the abusive relationship between Joker and Harley, but one you do if your impression of the couple is so fundamentally warped - so demonstrably twisted - that you actually hold them up as an iconic couple from DC’s library.

There are just so many levels of ‘ick’ to this announcement. So many. God.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.