Before The Suicide Squad was released, there were reports making the rounds that Margot Robbie was planning on taking a break from playing the DCEU’s Harley Quinn. However, the actress debunked those tales herself after admitting that, while she was jaded from shooting Birds of Prey and James Gunn’s R-rated romp back-to-back, she was already raring to go again.
The Suicide Squad might be one of the best-reviewed installments in the franchise’s history, but it’s poised to die a death at the box office after bringing in just $26 million in its opening weekend. With a budget of $185 million, there’s virtually no chance that it’s going to end up being profitable in the long run.
Of course, that will inevitably lead to much doomsaying and finger-pointing at various directions, with insider Grace Randolph now offering up the admittedly unverified and uncorroborated rumor that The Suicide Squad‘s poor performance could end up with Warner Bros. taking the role of Harley Quinn in a different direction.
“As for Harley Quinn, we already knew that Warner Bros. and Margot Robbie were planning to take a break with the character. I told you I heard because they wanted to see how she was received here, and well now they are starting to see. If she comes back, I do think there will be changes to how she interprets the character. Warner Bros. gave her a choice, does she want to make a Birds of Prey movie or a Gotham City Sirens movie?
They never should have given her that choice because she should have made a Gotham City Sirens movie, and she chose poorly! She chose the wrong path, and she is continuing to suffer for it. Now here’s the concern, Warner Bros. could use the Multiverse as an excuse to flow it out another live-action Harley Quinn. If they decide to do that, then Margot Robbie will be in real trouble.”
That’s a bit of a stretch, to put it lightly. After all, it was the studio who pushed for Gunn to include Harley in The Suicide Squad when the filmmaker asked what he had to keep from David Ayer’s opener. Her performance is hardly the reason why the film struggled at an already stagnant box office.
If anything, she’s been one of the undoubted highlights each time she’s appeared in the DCEU so far, even if Suicide Squad was fairly terrible and her most recent pair of efforts have flopped. As such, file this one in the drawer marked “entirely speculative” for now until we get some concrete facts on the matter.
