«Lady Gaga Wears Harley Quinn Costume in ‘Joker’ Sequel Set Photo»

DC Comics fans got a glimpse of Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in the Joker sequel set to be released on October 4, 2024. She was spotted while shooting the movie in New York City on Saturday, wearing a costume that was familiar to fans of the character from Batman: The Animated Series.

Gaga's look as Harley Quinn features a red jacket with a diamond pattern and eye makeup similar to the character The Joker (Joaquin Phoenix). The photo shows Harley Quinn surrounded by officers of the Gotham City Police Department.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel was a psychiatrist employed by Arkham Asylum, charged with the mission of rehabilitating the Joker. Against all odds, however, she instead fell in love with him and adopted the alias of Harley Quinn. From then on, she loyally supported the Joker in his unlawful activities in Gotham City.

Harley Quinn was birthed from the minds of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in Batman: The Animated Series, airing on Fox Kids from 1992 to 1995. Voiced by Arleen Sorkin, her first episode was “Joker’s Favor”. Dini and Timm later wrote a comic book, The Batman Adventures: Mad Love, which elaborated on Harley’s origin story. The comic was adapted for The New Batman Adventures in 1999.

Arleen Sorkin originally took on the role of Harley Quinn in 1992 for the Batman: The Animated Series. Her performance earned the character a great following, and resulted in Harley being included in the DC comic books in subsequent years. Sorkin returned to the character in 2009 when she voiced Harley in the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, which also featured the voices of Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Mark Hamill as The Joker, both reprising their roles from The Animated Series. In the subsequent video game sequels Batman: Arkham City (2011) and Batman: Arkham Knight (2015), the voice of Harley was provided by Tara Strong.

On the big screen, Margot Robbie has portrayed Harley in the DC Extended Universe, starting with 2016’s Suicide Squad. Robbie has since reprised the role in 2020’s Birds of Prey and 2021’s The Suicide Squad.

Phillips, the director of the original Joker movie, will take the helm of the sequel. Joaquin Phoenix and Gaga will return, along with Zazie Beetz reprising her role as Sophie Dumond, the Joker/Arthur Fleck's neighbor. Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Harry Lawtey are also set to star.

Released in 2019, the first movie followed Arthur Fleck's transformation into the iconic villain. It also featured Brett Cullen's Thomas Wayne as a mayoral candidate in Gotham City and Dante Pereira-Olson as the young Bruce Wayne. The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Phoenix took home the Oscar for Best Actor.