Harley Quinn has had a lot of different looks since her first debut in Batman: The Animated Series, but what she wears in Suicide Squad is very different from anything we’ve seen Harley in before. That wasn’t always going to be the case, according to Margot Robbie — in fact, her classic costume nearly made it into the movie.
Speaking to Hello Giggles about the movie, Robbie said that Harley’s look went through a lot of iterations before arriving on the hotpants and shiny-jacketed look we’ve seen her strutting around in for Suicide Squad. By the sounds of it, a lot of those iterations included costumes the character has worn throughout her history:
Oh, we tried on every variation of the costume. I cannot emphasis enough how many outfits, and how many variations of the Harley Quinn costume we tried. We tried the court jester costume, we tried the corset and skirt, we tried leather pants, we tried literally every type of costume possible for her. I really love where we ended up. And who knows, maybe in the sequels we’ll go with the court jester one. I think there’s a world of possibilities.
The “court jester” is obviously a nod to her outfit from Bruce Timm’s classic animated show, where Harley made her debut, but the “corset and skirt” and “leather pants” looks definitely sound like references to Harley’s appearance in the Batman: Arkham series of video games:
While either of those costumes seem like they’d fit into Suicide Squad‘s aesthetic pretty simply, I’m honestly surprised that the classic look was ever considered. Sure, it would have been nice to see how it might have looked on the big screen, but it would also have been be wildly out of place with the rest of the Suicide Squad’s get-ups. Still, hopefully some concept art or behind-the-scenes pictures will hit the web someday.
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8 responses to “Margot Robbie Almost Wore Harley Quinn’s Classic Costume In Suicide Squad”
*sobs*
Harley, and everything else that sprung from that landmark cartoon is now finally getting its dues which is a good thing.
For too long it was waved away by ‘true comic book lovers’ and that was most annoying. You see it even today with the Marvel movies apparently doing everything right for the first time.
It’s old enough that it’s getting callbacks to it from the darndest places, but I’d still like to see it allowed to rest in peace. Conroy as Arkham Batman was fine at first, but the beauty of his performance was his pro-active and ‘leading man’ role.
You only react to stuff in games like the Arkham series. He’s over-shadowed, the material he’s given to work with is something pretty cringeworthy, but ‘because it’s videogames’ I need to accept it.
Similarly, Hamill’s Joker voice coming out of that monstrosity that walks around in the Arkham games is a bit of a letdown for me, personally. But that has more to do with my distaste for Unreal engine character models I think. Why he’s going to be voicing the Killing Joke animated movie adaptation is beyond me. If anything, Joe DiMaggio’s Joker is a darker, more suitable choice who I think is under-rated.
I look forward to Harley being the surprise packet of this movie, myself.
How about a picture of the full classic costume for those who don’t know it?
This is the classic HQ http://img07.deviantart.net/307e/i/2013/147/b/2/harley_quinn___classic_by_marcusaurelius161-d66sf4l.jpg
Really didn’t like Harley Quinns design in the Arkham games, it made her look like a goth/emo chick from the 2000s.
Don’t like any of the suicide squad designs either.
Absolutely love the design from Batman Animated Series though.
An article about Margot Robbie (sort of) with no Margot Robbie picture. How disappointing.
There you go 🙂
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRN13S4ydG8P7IRcNFfjqjptR9JJDNiXOPxwYx-QLERNWy1rIXLBFdeeExYAg
There was concept art of the harlequin costume in a grittier setting circulating around the time that Dark Knight Rises was due to be announced that looked like it might have worked.
EDIT:
Found it.
https://fanartexhibit.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/harley_quinn_new3.jpg
After all that digging I don’t actually like it all that much, but might have worked ok alongside Ledger had things turned out differently.