James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, where she will be one of the few characters to continue on from the 2016 installment.
Even though Robbie’s Harley Quinn was one of the breakout stars of Ayer’s Suicide Squad, leading to Warner Bros. making plans for other projects centered around the Batman villain, the film itself was riddled with problems. The film had a nightmare production; with Warner Bros. interfering and changing Ayer’s vision drastically, especially his vision for Harley Quinn. More recently, a female fan criticized Ayer’s portrayal of Harley saying she “was sexualized” and not a real character. Ayer responded by sighting, “her story arc was eviscerated” and saying, “Everything is political now. Everything.” However, now the director has faced some more criticism for his portrayal of Harley Quinn.
On Twitter, the director received a response to his previous tweet explaining how Harley’s story arc was no more, and everything has become political. The response to Ayer’s tweet claimed everything that Ayer also did with Harley was “political.” The woman said things like, “A female character in an abusive relationship is already political,” and even the way the “camera looked at her was political.” Ayer simply responded by retweeting it and thanking her for the “thoughtfully written” response, writing that he is “growing and learning in a changing world.” Full tweets and interaction can be seen below:
While the “everything is political” debate, and the woman’s response is not altogether false, Ayer has handled this well by acknowledging the positives of the criticism and sharing it so a larger audience will also see the tweet. Also, writing that he is “growing and learning” was a nice touch, as that is often the case for all filmmakers, and people in general. His classy response is also not entirely surprising, as Ayer has likely grown accustomed to the criticism towards his film, be it just or unjust, and he often takes the high road.
In regards to the consistent criticism the director is receiving for his Harley Quinn character in Suicide Squad, he did previously state in an Instagram post, that the “emotional through line” of the film was supposed to be about Harley “escaping her relationship with Joker.” Had that been brought to the big screen, we’d likely have seen a much different reaction from fans, probably one more similar to how fans have been reacting to Birds of Prey. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is, Suicide Squad and Ayer will always have its critics. Hopefully, Gunn can help change that image a little with The Suicide Squad in 2021.
Source: David Ayer
