Given the recent creative renaissance of the DCEU, as well as the billion dollar success that greeted Joker and Joaquin Phoenix’s subsequent Academy Award win for Best Actor, there’s been some confusion and plenty of narrative headaches about how Warner Bros. are planning to handle their comic book properties going forward.
The shared universe is still populated by characters that date back to Zack Snyder’s time at the helm, but there’ve also been several actors that have jumped ship, as well as the likes of Joker and The Batman splintering off into separate timelines that have nothing to do with the pre-established narrative. For example, Wonder Woman 1984 lands later this year as part of the DCEU, but the last time we saw Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince, she was sharing the screen with Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne in Justice League.
Similarly, Jared Leto’s Joker is nowhere to be found among the ensemble of James Gunn’s currently-shooting The Suicide Squad, despite being one of the main selling points of the first movie, and yet his on-off beau Harley Quinn headlined Birds of Prey, and will reprise her role once again in next year’s anithero-driven sequel. And now, We Got This Covered is hearing that things could be about to get even more confusing.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us Disney were working on an Aladdin sequel last year, and also revealed John Cena’s top-secret role in Fast & Furious 9 way back in November – director Matt Reeves wants to introduce Harley Quinn into his Batman trilogy at some point, just not the one played by Margot Robbie. It’s unclear who would portray the character, but given that the film is set outside the DCEU, it certainly makes sense that it wouldn’t be Robbie.
Not only that, but The Batman picks up with Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne during his second year of crime-fighting, and based on who the filmmaker has lined up for the first installment, it’s easy to see why Reeves might want to utilize more of the Dark Knight’s extensive rogues’ gallery in the proposed sequels.
Just don’t think about it too much, because DC having two comic book franchise running simultaneously with at least two Jokers and two Harley Quinns running around played by completely different actors, one set of whom has already crossed paths with a Batman that technically doesn’t exist anymore, is enough to make your head spin.
