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Get a better look at Margot Robbie’s controversial ‘Suicide Squad’ costume

Set photos from 'Suicide Squad' show Margot Robbie as a supervillain in spike heels and sparkly shorts.

 

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Internet Culture

Posted on May 4, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 10:19 pm CDT

Director David Ayer unveiled the first Suicide Squad cast photo on Sunday night, showing nine members of the film’s supervillain team Task Force X. It didn’t take long for more detailed photos to start leaking from behind the scenes.

Harley Quinn and the Joker, undoubtedly the best-known characters in the movie, are sporting new looks that are already raising eyebrows among DC Comics fans. Jared Leto‘s Joker looks like a nu-metal singer from the early 2000s, while Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn costume veers toward the Sin City end of the comic-book-movie spectrum.

Margot Robbie fan site Margot Source shared a gallery of photos from the film set, showing the actress wearing spike heels, sequinned shorts, and a t-shirt reading “Daddy’s Lil Monster.” The back of her jacket reads “Property of the Joker.”

https://twitter.com/camiejuan/status/595219825925828609

Harley Quinn was always going to be a controversial figure, no matter what. She is beloved by many fans as a complex portrayal of an eccentric female villain, but she’s also no stranger to highly sexualized outfits—especially in the Suicide Squad comics. The question is whether new viewers will be put off by this kind of photo, where male characters wear bulky body armor while the female lead is dressed in what looks like a pin-up outfit.

At the moment, Harley Quinn looks all too similar to the women from Zack Snyder‘s box-office bomb Sucker Punch. Fans are already divided over whether this is an awesome new revamp of a popular character, or whether Robbie simply wound up wearing an eye-candy outfit.

If nothing else, Harley Quinn’s new look fits with Jared Leto’s Joker, with both sporting tattoos and a punk-influenced aesthetic.

Along with the new Harley Quinn photos, we got a different look at Will Smith as the assassin Deadshot. He was pictured without his mask in the group photo (presumably because he’s the most famous actor in the cast), but David Ayer also posted a photo of the character in his full costume. Note his collar and gun, which read, “I am the Light — The Way.”

Photo via Eva Rinaldi/Wikimedia (CC BY SA 2.0)

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*First Published: May 4, 2015, 12:54 pm CDT