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

2. Nor Should It Be Comedic

Warner Bros. Pictures

The film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is said to be like "When Harry Met Sally on Benzedrine", because, y'know, that's just what you think of when you think of Harley and Joker, right? An eighties rom-com with a medicated edge. Totally.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's resume - which includes such hits as 2001's Cats & Dogs and Looney Tunes: Back in Action - does not lend itself well to a Joker/Harley story, like, at all. This isn't to say that the pair haven't been involved in some compelling work throughout the years - 2009's I Love You Phillip Morris was a fine black comedy - but they just aren't suited for this kind of film; certainly so, given how most if not all of their filmography derives from the comedy genre.

Again, BTAS did share comedic moments between the pair, but they weren't glorified, nor were they romanticised. The fact of the matter is that these characters aren't the Bonnie and Clyde of the DC Universe, and nor should they in any Earth, reality or future past or present.

It's not a difficult concept to grasp.

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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.