Co-creator and co-showrunner Patrick Schumacker reveals that James Gunn will be playing himself in the highly anticipated Harley Quinn season 3. Gunn recently made his debut in the DC world with The Suicide Squad, a standalone sequel to David Ayer's DC Extended Universe villain team-up movie introducing a new team while killing off some members from the original. The sequel's success would lead Gunn to continue his relationship with DC, which recently included the hit HBO Max series Peacemaker, which was just renewed for season 2 and other mystery projects in development.
Hailing from Schumacker, Justin Halpern and Dean Lorey, Harley Quinn revolves around the titular villainess as she parts ways with the Joker and begins building her own team of villains to make a name for herself in the criminal underworld of Gotham. Kaley Cuoco stars as Harley, with the rest of the ensemble cast including Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as The Joker and Clayface, Tony Hale as Doctor Psycho, Ron Funches as King Shark, Jason Alexander as Sy Borgman, J.B. Smoove as Frank the Plant, Diedrich Bader as Batman, reprising his role from The Brave and the Bold, James Adomian as Bane and Christopher Meloni as Jim Gordon. Harley Quinn has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike across its DC Universe run and as it shifts over to HBO Max, the creators of the series have exciting plans in store for season 3.
While attending the Reimagining of Iconic Characters for an Adult Audience panel at this week's South by Southwest festival, Patrick Schumacker (via SlashFilm) revealed that James Gunn will be playing himself in Harley Quinn season 3. The co-showrunner explained that the filmmaker is set to cameo in the series as he goes to work directing a movie "about Thomas Wayne." Schumacker kept mum on when in the new season Gunn will appear or how extensive his role will be in the episode.
The reveal that James Gunn will play himself in Harley Quinn season 3 is sure to come as an interesting draw for fans of the filmmaker as well as those of the show itself. The first two seasons saw the creatives deliver a number of meta and fourth-wall breaking moments in the same vein as Deadpool, most notably season 2's fifth episode, "Batman's Back, Man," in which "Release The Snyder Cut" and "The Last Jedi Is Not Canon" shirt-wearing men debate the show's value. The moment targeting the toxic side of the DC fan base proved to be a humorous moment within Harley Quinn and a clear sign of how the series could pull off meta humor.
Gunn's inclusion in Harley Quinn season 3 marks a nice continuation of this meta trend from season 2 and raises interesting questions as to his role in the series. With the aforementioned scene having referenced both the mythical Snyder Cut, which would later evolve into Zack Snyder's Justice League, as well as Fox's Gotham and fellow DC Universe title Young Justice, it will be interesting to see if the writers elect to reference Gunn's work on The Suicide Squad or Peacemaker within his episode. Only time will tell when Harley Quinn season 3 premieres later this year on HBO Max.
Source: SlashFilm
