One of the masterminds behind DC’s animated universe has always been Bruce Timm, whose simplified, cartoon-y style set the tone of the moody ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ and has carried over to several spin-off series and movies.  Though ‘Batman’ and subsequent shows borrowed heavily from the vast library of DC Comics stories and characters, the animated shows also added elements, many of which have subsequently been adapted to the comic book source material.  The biggest of these is, without a doubt Harley Quinn, whom Timm co-created along with fellow architect of the DC Animated Universe Paul Dini.

Originally conceived of as a ditzy moll for The Joker, since her cartoon debut, Harley Quinn has become one of DC’s most popular characters with countless tee shirts, statues and other pieces of merchandising.  She has since become a major figure in the video games ‘Batman: Arkham’ and ‘Injustice’ series, which have added a new, punkier take on the character and she is one of only a few female characters to star in her own comic series.

For years, the character sported the classic full body harlequin costume Timm devised (seen to the right), but when DC launched its New 52 initiative, Harley was given a “sexier” costume with an ill-fitting bustier and booty shorts.

Now the character is making her biggest leap ever, coming to life in live action in David Ayer’s new ‘Suicide Squad’ movie, which adds a darker side to the burgeoning DC cinematic universe, which began in ‘Man of Steel’ and will be further fleshed out in ‘Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice’.

While Timm was promoting the upcoming animated movie ‘Justice League: Gods and Monsters’, Timm was asked to react to Margot Robbie‘s appearance for the new movie.  Here’s what he had to say:

“I just saw the pic like a couple hours ago. It was interesting.  I was frankly a little nervous about what Harley would look like, but I thought she looked really cool. So I’m optimistic… I just saw the one shot of her in the group shot. So far so good.

“It’s interesting.  It’s weird. Myself — being somebody who’s taken characters that pre-exist and putting my own spin on them in my own little universe — I’m very aware of how when a character that I necessarily created shows up in other media that they have to adapt it and do different things with it than I would do. So I’m very open to it to see what they’re going to do. I’m actually really excited. I just today, just before the show started, saw the first image of Harley Quinn from the ‘Suicide Squad’ movie, and I thought ‘Woah. She looks actually pretty cute!’ I was actually kind of worried I thought ‘Oh, she’s going to look really, really bizarre and skanky’ but nah, she’s not too bad. So I’m often mistaken.”

The movie look basically ditches the classic look altogether and is more closely based on the New 52 redesign with healthy influences from the video games.  But it’s not entirely impractical and it does fit well in what appears to be a more real world-based movie.

In fact, Harley and Katanna are among the more flashy cast members.  If her co-creator can cut this look some slack, shouldn’t fans, whose reactions to the entire cast, including Harley, have been divisive to say the least.

What do you think of Margot Robbie’s appearance?  Are you excited to see Harley Quinn on the big screen?

‘Suicide Squad’ is directed by David Ayer and also stars Jared Leto as The Joker, Will Smith as Deadshot, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Adawale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc and Adam Beach as Slipknot with Common and Scott Eastwood in undisclosed roles.

The film is set to be released August 5, 2016.

Source: ComicBook.com