Why The Harley Quinn Showrunners Emphasized One Often-Ignored Part Of The Character’s Background

Yes, Harley Quinn is loud, destructive, crass, and humorous, but there’s so much more to her characterization than all of that. It’s easy to forget amid all the chaos that comes with her day-to-day life that she has a college education and was once a practicing psychiatrist. She has a wealth of knowledge about the human mind and all of the complexities its presents, which showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Sarah Peters made it a point to explore throughout “Harley Quinn.” “Every once in a while, we have to remind the audience of the multifaceted character that she is. Any time that we can organically bring in her psychology background, we try and do it,” the former explained.

Peters adds that playing up the intelligence of both Harley and Poison Ivy without losing the show’s comedic edge is a fun dynamic to work with. At the same time, though, in the case of Harley, they don’t just highlight her medical prowess for the sake of her character or to service the story. It’s also an effort to shift how the audience thinks about the topics of mental health and treatment for mental health issues. Schumacker told IndieWire, “If this show can, in any way, normalize that for those who might be timid about doing it for themselves? Great.”

With “Harley Quinn” Season 3 in the books and Season 4 on the way, one can only hope that we’ll see more of Harley Quinn’s psychiatrist side in addition to her more over-the-top, rebellious one.