The Joker and Harley Quinn Spinoff Will Be ‘Bad Santa’ Meets ‘This Is Us’
The Joker cinematic universe is getting weirder and weirder. Last week brought us the first look at Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker – excuse me, Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur wearing the Joker’s makeup. But Todd Phillips’ Joker origin story is just one of the many bizarre projects about the Batman villain Warner Bros. has on the docket. Beyond a Suicide Squad sequel, Jared Leto’s Joker will also be back in his own solo movie (sigh), and a Joker/Harley Quinn spinoff. That last one might be the weirdest of the bunch.
The upcoming spinoff would find Leto and Margot Robbie reprising their criminal couple for what’s been described as a twisted romance. Now that the script is complete, screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have revealed to Metro just what to expect from it: a mix of Bad Santa and This Is Us. So uh, raunchy tragedy porn, but in the DCEU? Allow Ficarra to explain further:
It was sort of like, we wrote ‘Bad Santa’ a couple of years ago, and it was that sensibility mixed with our ‘This Is Us’ sensibility. We kind of meshed them together. We were doing a relationship movie, but with the sensibility of a Bad Santa, f–ked up, mentally deranged people. It was a lot of fun.
Hm. That’s certainly a Choice. Ficarra and Requa wrote the R-rated holiday comedy and directed a handful of episodes of the NBC melodrama, so they’re pretty much pulling from what they know and slapping it onto the DC Comics characters. If you’re still struggling to understand what the heck that will look like, Ficarro gave away the opening of the movie to further explain:
The whole thing starts with Harley kidnapping Dr. Phil. Played by Dr. Phil hopefully. Because her and the Joker are having problems with their relationship.
Well then. This could end up being another DC misfire, but hey, maybe it’ll be something bizarrely entertaining. At this point, who knows if or when it’ll even happen; Ficarro and Requa have no clue when the project will go into production, but last we heard it may follow the Suicide Squad sequel. And there’s also the Birds of Prey movie, and of course Phillips’ Joker movie, which opens on October 4, 2019.
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