Harley Quinn first officially jumped from comic book page to live-action in 2016's Suicide Squad where she was played by Margot Robbie. The actress reprised the role in 2020's Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and 2021's The Suicide Squad.
The director of the latter recently confirmed that Robbie will return to the DC Extended Universe as Harley Quinn at some point in the future. In the meantime though, Lady Gaga will be playing the character in Joker: Folie A Deux which is a sequel to the 2019 Joaquin Phoenix-starrer, Joker.
The Todd Phillips-directed Joker films don't take place in the DC Extended Universe continuity, so Gaga's portrayal of the character will be an all-new one totally disconnected from Robbie's. It's not a direct recast, nor a replacement.
Though the singer-turned-actress' casting as Harley Quinn in the Joker sequel was confirmed back in August, we're only now hearing Robbie's opinion on the matter.
Despite what you may have heard in the tabloids about the actress not being all too pleased by Gaga taking the role, Robbie seems thrilled by the idea in a recent interview with MTV. She considers the role of Harley Quinn a mantle to be passed from one actor to the next akin to James Bond or none other than Batman, noting that there aren't many female roles like that.
"It makes me so happy, because I said from the very beginning that all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters, the way Macbeth or Batman always gets passed from great actor to great actor," Robbie explained.
"It's kind of like someone gets to do their Batman, or someone gets to do their Macbeth. I feel like, in not so many cases, are they female characters — Queen Elizabeth I, but beyond that, which I got to have a crack out as well, which I was honored to do. I was like, 'Wow! Cate Blanchett did Queen Elizabeth I. Now I get to.' It's such an honor to have built a foundation strong enough that Harley can now be one of those characters that other actors get to have a go at playing. And I think she'll do something incredible with it."
It'll be interesting to see how Gaga's take on the character differs from Robbie's, anyway.