Why The Suicide Squad Brings Back Harley Quinn’s Red & Black Colors

Here’s why The Suicide Squad brought back Harley Quinn’s famous red and black costume color scheme. The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn hits theaters this Friday. The film features Margot Robbie reprising the role of Harley Quinn. DCEU fans have loved Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn ever since her first appearance as Harley in 2016’s Suicide Squad and the follow up Harley Quinn solo film in 2020, Birds of Prey. 

While the iconic former psychiatrist turned psycho killer was never seen wearing anything red or black in her first two film appearances, The Suicide Squad takes her back to her television and comic book costume roots. In trailers and promotional posters for the film, Harley can be seen wearing a red and black leather jacket, a matching red and black corset top and red and black pants. Her main film outfit seems to be a direct callback to her original red and black comic book harlequin costume that she wore in Batman: The Animated Series, in addition to her appearances in DC comics. According to Robbie, Harley Quinn will have multiple costume changes in the film.

James Gunn confirmed that Harley Quinn’s costume in The Suicide Squad was in fact an homage to her original animated series/comic book looks as well as her red/black costume color schemes in video game appearances. Gunn’s recently participated in a fun fan Q&A via a Twitter takeover of the account Twitter Movies. Read Gunn’s full explanation for bringing a red and black Harley Quinn costume to the big screen below.

“I really love the original ‘Harley Quinn.’ It’s created by Paul Dini. And from the old animated adventures, and from the very early comics and she was red and black then.  And I liked her look in the “Injustice” video games. I thought that was a really cool look, and so we took a little bit from that. And at the end of the day we just decided to switch it up and use some red and black and it felt really good. 

And frankly, also, it was what probably, the main thing that fans tweeted me about when I got onto the project. People ask me a lot, ‘Will you have Harley back in red and black?’ And so, I listen to the fans sometimes at least, and this [request] was one of them.”

While it’s definitely important for a director to follow their own vision for a movie and not just do a film full of fan demands, it’s really nice that Gunn did listen to fans on this one detail. Harley Quinn has been a beloved character for decades, so an homage to her original costume colors is a nice touch for the highly anticipated film. While both Robbie and Gunn agreed that Harley Quinn didn’t need to be The Suicide Squad’s main character, it’s highly likely Robbie’s return as Harley Quinn will inevitably steal the show with her zany antics and Robbie’s consistently on-point character portrayal.

Although it’s still unknown what part Harley Quinn will play in The Suicide Squad, a behind-the-scenes video showed Harley in vibrant red dress seemingly on her own mission in the movie. Gunn has remained coy on whether or not he killed Harley Quinn off in The Suicide Squad. Given her immense popularity with fans, it’s hard to imagine that Gunn will actually kill her off, but that’s the fun behind the mystery of the movie. After all, Gunn was given free license to kill off any character he wanted.

After The Suicide Squad premieres worldwide, it remains to be seen what’s next for Harley. Robbie has said that she’d love to play Harley again, while Gunn has stated he’d love to make a solo Harley Quinn film. The future of Harley Quinn in the DCEU may be a mystery at this point, but there’s no doubt that she’ll return to the big screen one way or another, likely with a big gun in hand.

Source: James Gunn/Twitter Movies