James Gunn Would “Bend Over Backwards” to Bring Back Margot Robbie’s Harley — If She Wants In

James Gunn isn’t closing the door on Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. He’s just being honest that it’s a weird door to get through.

On “The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon? — The Official Podcast,” the DC Studios co-CEO said bringing Robbie’s Harley into the DCU is one of the harder things to justify as canon. The quotes were reported by Deadline, and a clip circulated Thursday via @EverythingDCU_ on X and was covered by ComicBookMovie.com. ComicBookMovie’s account of the sticking point is simple: the Joker hasn’t been established in the DCU, and Harley’s whole origin runs through him.

Gunn also says he genuinely doesn’t know whether Robbie wants to play the character again. “I love her as Harley. I don’t know if she wants to play Harley again. She may be over that,” he said, per Deadline. But if she does, he would “bend over backwards” to “explain that in the world.”

Read the fine print

That’s an open invitation, not an announcement. Some of the online framing today has treated this as the part being Robbie’s for the taking, and that’s a stretch. Gunn didn’t say the role is hers, didn’t say talks are underway, and didn’t say anything is decided. He said he’s unsure she’s interested, and that he’d do the work to make it fit if she is. Those are different things, and the gap between them is where a lot of DCU casting rumors go to die.

It’s also consistent with where Gunn has been for a while. Back in January 2024, he said on Threads that he hadn’t talked to Robbie about Harley in a long time but would love to work with her again, as Harley or as someone else.

Robbie has played Harley three times: Suicide Squad (2016), Birds of Prey (2020) and Gunn’s own The Suicide Squad (2021). That last one is the complication. Gunn has said that parts of The Suicide Squad count as DCU canon, and Weasel, who survived the film, turns up in Creature Commandos. So the film isn’t being erased; it’s being selectively imported, and Harley is the piece that doesn’t import cleanly.

That puts one more question mark over a DCU that is already thinking years ahead, from Man of Tomorrow on down.

The full episode is already out

The podcast is a one-off special with Gunn joined by Jennifer Holland (Emilia Harcourt) and Steve Agee (King Shark and John Economos). It was set to premiere Friday, October 30, but DC released it early, and the full episode is now streaming on YouTube.

The Harley answer is one piece of a whole episode’s worth of canon talk, with Peacemaker, Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2, King Shark and Amanda Waller also among the announced topics. We’ll break down the full canon answers separately.