Pop legend Madonna turned heads last weekend by donning a screen-perfect Harley Quinn costume for Halloween. The character has become a Halloween fixture since Margot Robbie’s take in The Suicide Squad, with the tattered Letterman jacket, dip-dyed pigtails, and ‘Daddy’s Lil Monster’ top now the default look for Harley.
But what many might not know is that the Queen of Pop came close to bringing the character to the screen way back in the 1990s.
After the smash hit of 1995’s Batman Forever, Warner Bros had total confidence that Joel Schumacher was the right man for the Caped Crusader. So when it came to its sequel, 1997’s Batman & Robin, they let him off the leash and began cooking up plans for a third Schumacher Batman movie, provisionally titled Batman Triumphant.
George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, and Michael Gough would all return (though not Alicia Silverstone) with Nicolas Cage approached to play the Scarecrow. Schumacher explained that we’d see Clooney’s Batman confronting the demons of his past, personified by a very different take on Harley Quinn.
Their version would have been a toy-maker who discovers that Batman ’89’s Joker was her father, and decides to get revenge on Batman for killing him. Madonna was the front-runner for the part, with Courtney Love also in consideration. This wrapped up in a fear toxin-induced finale, with Danny DeVito’s Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face, Jim Carrey’s Riddler, and Jack Nicholson’s Joker all returning to taunt the hero from beyond the grave.
The script was completed, and the gears began to move. Then Batman & Robin finally hit theaters and… well, let’s just say Warner Bros’ opinion of Schumacher rapidly changed.
Batman Triumphant probably wouldn’t have been good, but c’mon, a Nic Cage Scarecrow and a Nicholson Joker cameo? It would have at least been interesting.
Meanwhile, the new series of excellent animated show Harley Quinn is coming to HBO Max sometime this year, though we don’t have a release date yet. Watch this space, because there’s got to be an announcement soon.