Harley Quinn’s Suicide Squad 2 Role Could Reveal Birds of Prey Details
The inclusion of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) in The Suicide Squad could give away plot details for her next movie appearance, which will come in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Of all the characters in the DCEU, only Margot Robbie's Harleen Quinezel has a major role in two of the six movies with confirmed release dates. Harley Quinn, Joker's violent and mentally unstable girlfriend, was the breakout star of 2016's Suicide Squad, the third installment in the DC Extended Universe.
The unexpected box office success of Suicide Squad and the popularity of Harley Quinn led to the character being made the main protagonist of an all-female team-up movie set in the DCEU. Titled Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), the movie brings together a group of anti-heroes and femme fatales on a mission to rescue a young girl named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) from longtime Batman villain Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). Also in the mix is serial killer and fellow member of Batman's rogues' gallery, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina).
To save the day, Harley Quinn will be joined by a handful of female superheroes from DC Comics, including the crossbow-wielding vigilante Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Green Arrow's comic book partner Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). What will become of Black Canary, Montoya, and Huntress after the events of the movie is unclear, but Harley Quinn will certainly have more to do in the DCEU. The character will return for The Suicide Squad. It's worth pointing out that Harley Quinn being in The Suicide Squad has some interesting implications for Birds of Prey.
Suicide Squad tells the story of a group of criminals who are imprisoned at a key location from DC Comics, Belle Reve. Belle Reve is a penitentiary set up to contain dangerous criminals and metahumans. In the film, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) recruits several of Belle Reve's inmates and forms Task Force X to perform missions for the government in exchange for commuted sentences. One of the recruits is Harley Quinn, a young woman who was a psychiatrist prior to getting mixed up with the Joker (Jared Leto), the person who brought her into a life of crime.
After the mission is concluded, the inmates are sent back to Belle Reve, but due to their deeds, several years are cut from their (virtually infinite) sentences. However, one particular character's stay at the prison comes to an end when Joker visits Belle Reve. At the end of the movie, Joker succeeds in breaking Harley Quinn out of the prison. Her newfound freedom sets the stage for her return in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), which would suggest that when Margot Robbie's character is next seen, she'll be a fugitive on the run.
Directed by James Gunn, The Suicide Squad is a soft reboot of the series. The film features a few returning cast members from the first movie, but for the most part is being treated as a whole new story that's separate from the original, hence the title. The sequel features a huge, star-studded cast that includes Idris Elba, Nathan Fillion, John Cena, Peter Capaldi, Pete Davidson, Taikia Waititi, Michael Rooker, and several more. Among those who are back from the first film are Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, and Jai Courtney. It would seem that the film's unusually large cast is explained by the theory that a large chunk of the villains will be killed off in the first act. This would open the door for Amanda Waller to put together a new Suicide Squad. This may be where Harley Quinn comes into the picture.
What will be different about Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad is that no matter what the circumstances are behind her return to the team, she'll be without the Joker. It's been reported that Jared Leto won't be coming back for The Suicide Squad, nor will he appear alongside his comic book love interest in Birds of Prey. Traditionally speaking, Joker and Harley Quinn are an inseparable pair, but the comics have been known to pull them apart at times in order to provide Harley Quinn with stories that aren't reliant on her connection to the Joker. So it will be interesting to see how being away from Joker's influence will impact Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad.
The Suicide Squad movies are about teams of criminals being temporarily released from prison to embark on dangerous assignments from the government, so how does Harley Quinn even fit into The Suicide Squad? She was set free in the first movie, so her association with Task Force X and Amanda Waller should be over - unless something happens that changes that. Her only movie appearance between Suicide Squad and its sequel is Birds of Prey, so the answer to this question must be found there.
Harley Quinn, Black Canary, Renee Montoya, and Huntress will be up against a powerful crime lord when they face Black Mask. It's possible that their dealings with Black Mask won't exactly have a happy ending. Saving Cassandra Cain could leave Harley Quinn is a precarious position, depending on what she has to risk. By the end of the movie, Harley could end up incarcerated. Being arrested and taken back to Belle Reve is the ending that Harley Quinn needs for her to be back for The Suicide Squad. This can provide a direct link between the two DCEU films, but at the same time it wouldn't force them to become highly contingent on each other.
Given, it's also possible Harley could be captured off-screen or have Waller reclaim her during the events of The Suicide Squad, but that has the potential to be too clunky for the first act of a movie that's already introducing a ton of new characters. Having her in custody at the end of Birds of Prey isn't only the cleanest way to set that up, but it could also serve as a great ironic ending to a movie purportedly about her "emancipation."
It's not clear what this would mean for a potential Birds of Prey sequel. Harley being brought back to Belle Reeve at the end of Birds of Prey and then having her escape again in The Suicide Squad to set up Birds of Prey 2 seems a bit redundant, but with a character like Harley Quinn who has a history of being in and out of custody, it could be the perfect gag to bookend each of her appearances.