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

6. Suicide Squad Fundamentally Misread Their Relationship

Suicide Squad Joker Harley Quinn
Warner Bros. Pictures

No one should need reminding that Suicide Squad was a bad, baaaaad film, but hey, here we are, doing the deed anyway. Because it's 2017, and someone, somewhere, thought that a Joker/Harley solo feature was a good idea.

Anywho, Suicide Squad (if you didn't know already) took an altogether different approach to the pair's relationship, featuring a Mister J who - acting against type - we are led to believe loves Harley. He goes to great lengths to break her out of Task Force X (and then Belle Reve later), and is genuinely remorseful when she falls out of his getaway chopper. They're totally made out to be this cooky Bonnie & Clyde pairing and it just, doesn't, work.

It sets a worrying precedent for any future onscreen pairing between the two, especially one with Leto in mind. That, and well, it illustrates a tacit unwillingness on WB's behalf to properly engage with the source material they're adapting, or even the wider zeitgeist as a whole. Harley's very much her own character and, tasteless makeup tutorials notwithstanding, the bulk of her fanbase aren't interested in her relationship with Joker.

The character is strong enough to take the lead herself, as has been the case in the comics for years now.

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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.