Bruce Timm’s new animated Batman TV series has revealed its release date and other details, and there are some major changes afoot for Harley Quinn.
Titled Batman: Caped Crusader, the new Prime Video TV series has unveiled one of DC’s most loved supervillains in a whole new light, using 1940s film noir as a huge visual reference.
Quinn has previously been heavily characterized by her connection to The Joker, but first previews of the new series paint her as a standalone character, portraying her as Asian American in more traditional 1940s “clown” attire.
First look at Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Clayface in ‘BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER’, a ‘40s-set period pieceReleasing August 1 on Prime Video.(Source: https://t.co/R7d9tJooED) pic.twitter.com/ckACPAWBEH
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) May 9, 2024
“I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend,” Timm explained to Entertainment Weekly. “So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird.
“So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary.”
Timm also teased that after quitting her supervillain job, Quinn is set to “use her psychiatry as a weapon,” though details of how this will unfold have been kept under wraps.
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She isn’t the only character changing — Timm’s version of Batman is set to be a bit… stranger, and Quinn will be assigned to treat Bruce Wayne.
“The idea was to keep him so removed that no one knows who he is, and no one knows what he’s about. We try to wipe out the foregone conclusion that he’s a hero, whether it’s for the police, regular citizens of Gotham, or the viewers,” character designer James Tucker added.
While more details surrounding the new Quinn remain unknown, fans are already divided over her new look.
“Harley looks like she’s doing the mewing challenge,” one fan posted on X/Twitter, with another adding: “Cat Woman is standard but I love Clayface, Harley’s Clayface looks just like his golden age counterpart, and Harley’s is a solid interpretation of the jester look in a 40s setting.”
Batman: Caped Crusader will be released on Prime Video on August 1. Check out other upcoming DC movies and TV shows, everything we know about The Batman 2, and even more new movies to stream this month.