Harley Quinn’s Complete DCEU Timeline Explained

Since Margot Robbie debuted as Harley Quinn in the DCEU’s Suicide Squad, the villain-turned-antihero has become one of the franchise’s most popular characters. Including 2016’s Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie has only appeared in three DCEU projects as Harley Quinn, yet the character has still seen a huge amount of popularity among DC Studios’ audiences, even standing out among some of the franchise’s bigger names. Harley Quinn’s live-action future in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe is unclear, as DC Studios has provided no confirmation of Robbie’s return. Even so, Robbie has provided some of the faltering DCEU’s best moments as the Clown Prince of Crime’s partner in crime.

Opposite Jared Leto’s younger and more vibrant version of the Joker, Margot Robbie debuted as Harley Quinn in 2016’s Suicide Squad, and went on to have starring spots in 2020’s Birds of Prey and 2021’s The Suicide Squad. Despite only making three DCEU appearances, Harley Quinn’s backstory has been explored more than many other characters, so audiences have a good sense of where she came from, what happened to her, and why she does some of the heinous things she does. Despite her overt villainy, Harley Quinn has also helped to save the world on multiple occasions, making her one of the most beloved antiheroes in any live-action superhero franchise.

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Harleen Quinzel Becomes Harley Quinn

Much of Harley Quinn’s DCEU backstory was detailed through flashbacks in 2016’s Suicide Squad. Sent to an orphanage as a child, Harleen Quinzel displayed a rebellious attitude from a young age, but was still a model student, and eventually wrote a PhD thesis centered on the circumstances in which individuals disregard society’s rules. As a psychiatry intern, Harleen Quinzel assigned herself to the Joker, where she found herself being manipulated by the Clown Prince of Crime, and eventually fell in love with him. The Joker subjected her to shock therapy, shattering her psyche, before they finally bonded in a chemical bath that completed her transformation into his Queen: Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn Serves As A Member Of Task Force X

While detailing her backstory in flashbacks, 2016’s Suicide Squad also featured Harley Quinn as a primary member of the first team dubbed Task Force X. Under the watchful eye of Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, who is set to return in the DC Universe’s Waller series, Harley Quinn and the rest of the Suicide Squad were forced to enter into battle with the Enchantress. Quinn had ulterior motives for joining the Suicide Squad, however, as the Joker had been formulating a plan to break her out of prison. Nevertheless, Harley Quinn ended Suicide Squad as a changed person, allowing her future in the DCEU to be separate from her former love.

Harley Quinn Is Captured By Batman

Harley Quinn was first sent to prison after an altercation with Ben Affleck’s Batman, which was explored during Amanda Waller’s pitch for Task Force X in Suicide Squad. After the Joker and Harley Quinn had killed Batman’s sidekick and adoptive son, Robin, and vandalized the young hero’s suit, the Caped Crusader had a serious vendetta against the King and Queen of Gotham City. During a car chase, the Joker inadvertently drove him and Harley Quinn into a river, and though the Joker managed to escape, Quinn was captured by Batman and incarcerated in Belle Reve supermax prison, where Amanda Waller found her for Task Force X.

Harley Quinn Meets The Suicide Squad

Shortly after the Enchantress’ first attack on Midway City, Harley Quinn was collected with the other members of the Suicide Squad and gifted her old clothing and weaponry. With the promise of ten years off their sentences, and the threat of their heads being blown up by explosive implants, Task Force X set out to rescue “HVT1” from Midway City, who would turn out to be Amanda Waller. Quinn routinely displayed her trouble-making tendencies on this mission, including hatching her plan to escape with the Joker via a contraband phone. Despite this, she formed a close bond with Will Smith’s Deadshot, plotting to turn against their captors when they can.

Harley Quinn Tries To Escape With The Joker

After learning that Amanda Waller was the target they were assigned to save from Midway City, everyone in Task Force X was angered, but this provided Harley Quinn with the perfect opportunity to escape. With her implant deactivated as per the Joker’s demands, Quinn had a brief reunion with the Joker before their helicopter was hit with a missile and she was thrown onto the roof of a nearby building. After reuniting with the Suicide Squad, and believing the Joker to be dead, Quinn and the team head to a bar where they find a way to bond with Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag and agree to take down the Enchantress and Incubus.

Harley Quinn & The Suicide Squad Battle Enchantress

As they near the Enchantress, the witch makes the team see visions of what their perfect life could be. Harley Quinn witnesses a vision of her and the Joker in a perfect family with a child to boot. Despite wanting to make the vision a reality, Quinn still fights against the Enchantress, tricking her into believing she wants to join the witch, only to tear out her heart and allow the other members of the team to destroy her weapon. Even though she thought she wouldn’t be reunited with the Joker, Quinn was pleased when Flag reunited with his love, June Moone, before the Suicide Squad’s members were re-incarcerated.

Harley Quinn Escapes From Prison

Harley Quinn seemed happy to be in prison at the end of Suicide Squad, especially since she had negotiated herself a coffee machine in her cell. However, her peace was soon disrupted by the arrival of the Joker, revealed to still be alive, who broke her free from prison. Despite the pair embracing, the Joker seemed apathetic towards Harley Quinn, perhaps teasing the pair’s break-up prior to the events of 2020’s Birds of Prey. Following her break-up, Harley Quinn felt lost without the Joker, and continued her crime streak while erasing him from her life, which included redesigning her Joker-themed tattoos, but she was far more vulnerable without his protection.

Harley Quinn Finds Her Independence And Forms The Bird Of Prey

Harley Quinn was soon captured by Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask, but negotiated that he wouldn’t harm her if she found a diamond stolen by Cassandra Cain for him. Quinn soon caught up with Ella Jay Basco’s Cassandra Cain, but during an altercation at an amusement park, brought together a team of antiheroes to battle the Black Mask instead of turning Cain over to him. This team comprised Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s Black Canary, Rosie Perez’s Renee Montoya, Cain, and Quinn. After the Black Mask was killed by Cain and Quinn, the group used the proceeds from pawning the diamond to establish a bona fide crime-fighting organization.​​​​​​​

Harley Quinn Lands Back In Prison And Rejoins The Suicide Squad

Despite being out of prison during Birds of Prey, 2021’s The Suicide Squad, James Gunn’s first foray into the world of the DCEU, revealed that Harley Quinn had been re-incarcerated under charges of bank robbery, vigilantism, kidnaping, attempted murder, and destruction of property. This leads to her being recruited to the new-and-improved Suicide Squad team alongside former teammates Rick Flag and Captain Boomerang. The Suicide Squad gave Harley Quinn a much meatier role, as she was completely separate from the Joker and the Birds of Prey, and able to develop her own storyline and narrative as a solo act, though this leaves her DC Universe future unclear.

Harley Quinn Joins The Mission To Corto Maltese

In The Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn is a member of the original mission to Corto Maltese, where the team were supposed to infiltrate Nazi-era laboratory Jotunheim and destroy its secret experiment, “Project Starfish”. However, this mission was destined to fail, as Amanda Waller had put together two teams, with Quinn’s serving as a diversion so the other could enter the country undetected. Only Rick Flag and Harley Quinn survive an attack from the Corto Maltese military, and while Flag is captured by rebel soldiers, Quinn was captured by the government and taken to Presidente Silvio Luna’s palace, as the dictator wishes to marry her.

Harley Quinn Escapes Silvio Luna’s Palace

Initially, Harley Quinn liked the look of her new life, but after learning that Silvio Luna intended to use Project Starfish to wipe out political dissidents, she killed the dictator, though this lands her in a torture chamber. Quinn managed to escape and decimated the palace staff in a flurry of flowers and color – typical of James Gunn’s live-action projects. Shortly after escaping from Luna’s palace, Harley Quinn reunited with Rick Flag and the members of the other Task Force X, who had needlessly planned to rescue her. Since they no longer needed to, Quinn joined the new Suicide Squad on their mission to destroy Jotunheim and Project Starfish.

Harley Quinn & The Suicide Squad Destroy Jotunheim & Battle Starro

With the help of Peter Capaldi’s Thinker, the Suicide Squad infiltrate Jotunheim and rig it with explosives. However, they also come across Starro the Conqueror, a giant star-shaped alien that the United States government had been using to conduct experiments on the residents of Corto Maltese. The team learned that their true purpose was to cover up the United States’ involvement in Jotunheim’s experiments, and despite being told to retreat after Jotunheim’s destruction, Task Force X decide to save Corto Maltese instead. Starro kills Polka-Dot Man, but Harley Quinn creates a hole in its eye that Ratcatcher 2 sends a horde of rats into, eating the creature from inside out.​​​​​​​

Harley Quinn Is A Free Woman At The End Of The Suicide Squad

After defeating Starro and saving the residents of Corto Maltese, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport blackmailed Amanda Waller into pardoning all members of Task Force X completely. This meant that everybody, including Harley Quinn, is now free, no longer having the threat of incarceration hanging over their heads. For Harley Quinn, this offers the chance of a normal life – just like the vision she had during 2016’s Suicide Squad. However, after so long in a life of crime, it’s unclear how long she’ll retain her clean slate. The Suicide Squad may have concluded Harley Quinn’s DCEU storyline perfectly, but many want to see her return in the new DC Universe.

Does Harley Quinn Have A Future In James Gunn’s DC Universe?

Margot Robbie hasn’t yet been confirmed to be reprising the role of Harley Quinn in the rebooted DC Universe, though it’s entirely possible that she could be returning. John Cena’s Peacemaker, Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, Steve Agee’s John Economos, Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt and Sean Gunn’s Weasel have all been confirmed to be returning after appearing in The Suicide Squad, and with several other actors from James Gunn’s previous projects expected to have roles in the new DC Universe, it’s possible Robbie’s Harley Quinn could join them. As one of the DCEU’s most popular characters, it would be a shame to see the end of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn​​​​​​​.