Some things end with a bang, some with a whimper, and some with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Thanks to a mix of creative and business overhaul, the sequel to a movie that earned more than $1.15 billion has been rendered as little more than a postscript to the dissolving DC Extended Universe project. The universe will be replaced in the coming years by a new shared universe, one overseen by comic book whisperer James Gunn. All that remains now is to clear away the rubble of what was once Warner Bros. used to be.' try to emulate Disney in its interconnected game and see what's done right.
The main answer to that is quite easy to find: Harley Quinn. A character who first emerged as the Joker's fanatical gun moll in the classic Batman: The Animated Series got a live-action adaptation to the big screen thanks to the DCEU, and she might end up being the most consistent thing about it. The DCEU's biggest impact was far away from the familiar territories of Batman and Superman – it was always best when it pushed back on the familiar and let characters like Harley Quinn shine.
That's not to say that Harley Quinn was somehow plucked from obscurity. Along with Marvel's Venom, she is the most famous villain introduced in the modern comic book era. Thanks to her attractive mix of naivety and bloodlust, she quickly became a rival to the shame of the clown she was paired with. BTAS (such as “Harley and Ivy” and “Mad Love”) are considered some of the series' best. The creators of DC Comics accelerated its development in the 2010s, with a place on a renewed Suicide squad and her own ongoing series, which built her a life outside of Gotham City and emphatically set her up with the Joker. In 2019, she even got her own cartoon, one in which she starred as a beloved group of crazies and outcasts and ultimately foregrounded her romantic relationship with Poison Ivy.
Image: G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara/DC Comics
But success in films, as well as the development of series regulars like Aquaman and the Flash, had eluded her. She was apparently going to debut as the Joker's vengeful daughter has arrived Batman unleashed, a film that would have been director Joel Schumacher's third stab at the franchise. However, Batman and Robin's one-two punch of a mediocre box-office gross and some of the worst reviews ever hurled at a major IP blockbuster put an end to that. As such, she languished and always seemed like the kind of character who would be great if someone would just give her a chance.
In a way, Harley Quinn's role in the first one Suicide squad reflects her status within the broader DCEU. That the film was a post-production nightmare is now an open secret: director David Ayer's original approach was edited and reshot into a clumsy DC riff on Guardians of the universe, one that made a lot of money but was poorly received. But Margot Robbie, who embodied Harley Quinn as a deadly, funny troublemaker, became a hit among comic book and Hot Topic enthusiasts alike. By the end of the movie, it mattered very little what the Joker was doing, even though he kept Quinn under his thumb. It was very clear who the star of the two was.
“It matters little in the end” would be a trait that haunted most DCEU films. The grand, thematic battle between gods and humanity that was at the heart of Zack Snyder's vision of Justice League was replaced by idle chatter by the time Joss Whedon got his hands on the big team-up extravaganza. Wonder Woman had made a lot of money and even received solid critical reception, but her status as one of DC's holy trinity was left unclear by a clunky, straight-to-stream sequel.
Spread thinly across countless franchises, Henry Cavill had a will-he-won't-he relationship with Superman, and by the time he landed the role Black Adam's post-credits scene, the DCEU was already on its way out. Ben Affleck proved to be a capably evil Batman forever in search of a good script, though he ended his tenure as perhaps the platonic ideal of what the DCEU was originally intended to be: he starred in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice And Justice Leagueas they pop up in supporting roles in Suicide squad And The flash. But its days were numbered after a planned solo film slowly developed into DCEU-less The hitter.
With so much turmoil among the DC titans, it left little room for the character development you'd expect. But Harley Quinn came back Birds of Prey (and the Fantastic Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), a film that actively tried to push Quinn past her Joker fixation and into a team of women all dealing with their own difficult backstories. It was a hopeful film that framed its drive for optimism in a natural narrative way, rather than the gun-to-your-head corporate sneer of something like Whedon's film. Justice League movie.
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
By the time she walked in The suicide squad by the next year, she had grown into a character who could function without the expectation of the Joker's presence. In a sense, she had even usurped his function as the lovable, chaotic presence in DC's cinematic mythology. And most impressive of all, she'd somehow managed to weather multiple soft reboots of the DCEU's targets and, as an ensemble staple, become the queen of its freaky B-listers. The closest the Justice League came to a post-Snyder reunion was a brief moment at the end of the first season of Peacemaker and a muddled conversation in the first act of The flash. However, Quinn, through multiple Suicide Squads and the upcoming Birds of Prey, seemed ready for whatever team events Warner Bros. would offer her.
All of the DCEU's most embraced hits came from dodging assumptions. Aquaman quickly became the most likable hero in the entire series (thanks mainly to Jason Momoa's indomitable frame and backstabbing), a far cry from the years he'd spent as a comically bland member of the Super Friends. Wonder Woman was such a surprise that it achieved the highest achievement a DC film can achieve: The best DC movie since The Dark Knight. Before the Shazam! sequel plunged into nonsense, the first film was quite refreshing for a hero who was considered, to say the least, a Superman palette swap. Peacemaker got his own TV spin-off, turning the character into an oddly likable muscle. After over 30 years from false starts, a Flash movie has finally been made! Too bad about the rest.
With the DCU on the horizon and James Gunn's open enthusiasm for comic book source material (and proven adeptness at handling its translation into films), it seems all but certain that Harley Quinn and characters like her will get their comeuppance. And while Margot Robbie's participation as the character is up in the air, the foundation she's laid for the character's cinematic future is strong. Against all odds, she and a group of filmmakers managed to take a character on a wide-ranging journey from Joker lackey to fan-favorite antihero. No amount of franchise restructuring could kill her. When the DCEU fell, Harley Quinn survived.