A Harley Quinn Film Is Coming, But There's Already Backlash

Harley Quinn is getting her own film — sort of.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed Wednesday that This Is Us directors and executive producers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are "in final negotiations" to write and direct a movie about Harley Quinn and The Joker. Ficarra and Requa also directed Crazy, Stupid, Love, THR notes.

Suicide Squad has an abysmal 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that didn't stop it from soaring at the box office (and winning an Oscar). Harley Quinn earned a new legion of devoted fans, with plenty of people dressing up as Margot Robbie's character at Comic-Con.

So it's not a surprise that fans would want a standalone movie about Quinn — but some people aren't happy with the news. Namely, fans aren't pleased that two men are in charge of telling Quinn's story. It's disappointing that after Wonder Woman's success, Hollywood isn't taking another opportunity to create a female-directed movie about a female character.

There's also the fact that the film appears to be a twisted love story. One source described the project to THR as "an insane and twisted love story. When Harry Met Sally on benzedrine."

For one thing, describing a movie about an character with an apparent personality disorder as "insane and twisted" isn't great mental health representation. For another thing, why does it have to be a love story at all?

The upcoming movie will join only a handful of films that focus on comic book villains, rather than superheroes. Other notable villain films in recent history include 2004's Catwoman and last year's Suicide Squad (and the Iron Man series, if you're one of the fans who considers Tony Stark a villain).

The news about the Harley Quinn/Joker movie comes just days after the announcement that there will be a film about the Joker's origin story, though that project won't feature Jared Leto.