Harley Quinn producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker respond to the question of whether the show’s James Gunn character directed an in-universe The Suicide Squad movie. Harley Quinn is an animated TV series that is currently streaming season 3 on HBO Max. The show’s voice cast includes Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches, Tony Hale, and Christopher Meloni.
Gunn, who directed DC’s The Suicide Squad and created the spinoff HBO series Peacemaker, was not involved in Harley Quinn seasons 1 and 2. However, during the production of season 3, it was revealed that he would join the voice cast of the series and cameo in Harley Quinn season 3 as himself, after Schumacker, knowing Gunn was a fan, reached out to him on Twitter. The James Gunn animated character is also a director in the universe of Harley Quinn, depicted as working on a movie about Thomas Wayne.
In an interview with Screen Rant at San Diego Comic-Con, Schumacker and Halpern address whether Gunn would have also made an in-universe version of The Suicide Squad, a movie that in reality featured Margot Robbie’s DCEU Harley Quinn. According to Halpern, the producers “had conversations around this” point during the making of Harley Quinn season 3, but eventually it became too confusing. Schumacker then confirms that the EPs never made a definitive decision. Check out the full statements from Halpern and Schumacker below:
Halpern: That’s a really good question, actually. I think we had conversations around this, but then it started breaking our brains. Did we ever decide on that?
Schumacker: No. We definitely discussed it, but I don’t think we ever definitively said. That’s one of the showrunning things that we’ve learned over the years: don’t ever commit to anything if you don’t have to, so that you know later if you decide that you want to make it canon that James Gunn directed The Suicide Squad in the Harley-verse.
But I think in this world initially, he was the Marvel guy.
As Halpern suggests, having Gunn’s Harley Quinn character be the director of The Suicide Squad in-universe would certainly be mind-bending. Adding Gunn’s past directorial work into the Harley-verse would have created a whole host of challenges, as it would have been inexplicable for Harley herself not to address the fact that she either acted in or was portrayed in a blockbuster movie. Thus, the decision to leave the option open for the canonization of Gunn directing The Suicide Squad, but not yet committing to it, makes Halpern and Schumacker’s lives a great deal easier.
Even without establishing this meta connection between Gunn the character and Gunn the person, the Harley Quinn cameo still is ripe with potential. As Schumacker alludes to in his Marvel comment, Gunn’s presence leaves the potential for other DC-related Easter eggs, which will be further expanded upon as Harley Quinn season 3 develops. Harley Quinn season 3 releases episodes on HBO Max on Thursdays at 3:01am EST.
