back in 2010, when that movie was unthinkably followed up by Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, because a war between cats and dogs apparently wasn’t enough, and they had to toss in a common enemy in the form of red-notice-worthy Sphynx? Do you also back in the 2010s when Smith strapped on the Deadshot getup for Suicide Squad, a film that would go on to prophesize the dark fate of the DC Extended Universe?

Well, it’s the 2020s now, and Smith remains as regrettably parallel to the Cats & Dogs franchise as ever. Per FlixPatrol, this day of Oct. 4 has seen Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore mark itself as the third-most-watched film on Hulu in the United States, inching out Will Smith’s fourth-place Suicide Squad.

To resign the David Ayer flick to this Kitty Galore-inflicted fate is an ittedly appropriate one, even if the bulk of the film’s failures had to do with Warner Bros.’ meddling. It must be pointed out, however, that Suicide Squad is only Smith’s greatest failure in of the films we still allow ourselves to think about.

Indeed, if we’re being honest, Smith’s true biggest cinematic blunder is a title held by After Earth, the M. Night Shyamalan-helmed sci-fi disaster that Will Smith himself called “the most painful failure in his career” in a 2015 Esquire interview.

But back to Suicide Squad (because we don’t talk about After Earth), the film is actually one of the more fascinating entries in the doomed franchise. For one, it’s the only picture in the entire DCEU to have won an Academy Award (namely, Best Makeup and Hairstyling), and to this day, fans are petitioning for a release of the Suicide Squad director’s cut in hopes of dubiously redeeming it, Zack Snyder’s Justice League-style.

As for Kitty Galore, there’s much less love lost. A 13% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes pairs quite hideously with its Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D; a dishonor it ultimately lost to M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (and thus, we’ve come full-circle). Nevertheless, that never stopped the Cats & Dogs franchise from popping up again a decade later, with standalone sequel Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite! getting a direct-to-video release in the United States in 2020. That venture went about as well as you’re probably assuming.

But it’s not a completely dark day for the Hulu charts. On either side of Suicide Squad and Kitty Galore are Dune: Part Two at number one, and How to Train Your Dragon at number five. So indeed, whether it be a gritty blockbuster adaptation of sci-fi royalty or one of Dreamworks’ best-ever accomplishments, there’s plenty of taste to counteract the lack thereof in Hulu’s top half.

With Lady Gaga taking on the role of Harley Quinn for Joker: Folie à Deux, people will inevitably compare her iteration of the character with that of Margot Robbie. But did you know they aren’t the only live-action portrayals of DC’s clown princess?

Created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for the beloved Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn was first introduced as Joker’s sidekick. However, from the start, Dini and Timm used the former Dr. Quinzel to show how villainous the Joker truly is, as the once-psychiatrist was now trapped in a toxic relationship. It’s no wonder Harley quickly transcended her origins to become a standalone character with a rich backstory and complex personality. 

Despite being created in the 1990s, Harley became one of the most recognizable characters in DC history. Over the years, she also evolved beyond the Joker and can now stand on her own two feet. Arleen Sorkin, who voiced Harley in BTAS and subsequent DC animated universe projects, established Harley’s iconic Brooklyn accent and manic energy, setting the standard for future portrayals. Tara Strong also helped shape the character by voicing Harley in various DC projects, including the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham game series. More recently, Kaley Cuoco took the helm of the Harley Quinn animated series, expanding the character’s mythology.

However, while Harley thrives in the larger DC universe, it’s the live-action takes on the anti-heroine that cement her as a more prominent pop culture icon. So, now that Joker: Folie à Deux is available, let’s take a closer look at the talented actress who brought Harleen to life.

5. Cassidy Alexa/Tara Strong (Arrow) 343v6t

The briefest appearance on our list goes to Cassidy Alexa, who physically portrayed Harley Quinn in a cameo on The CW’s Arrow. Yet, Alexa deserves only half the credit, as Tara Strong provided her voice. This version barely had time to make an impression, as it was just a tease for a villain so dangerous that she couldn’t even become part of the Suicide Squad. While it’s intriguing to imagine what could have been, this Harley remains more of a footnote than a fully realized character. The limited screen time and lack of character development make this the least impactful live-action portrayal of Harley Quinn.

4. Mia Sara (2002’s Birds of Prey) 18606b

Mia Sara’s portrayal of Dr. Harleen Quinzel in the short-lived 2002 TV series Birds of Prey marks an intriguing departure from the typical Harley Quinn characterization. Sara played Harley as a more mature, menacing, and high-functioning character than audiences were accustomed to seeing. So, more than a decade before Harley became well-established as a feminist icon, Sara was already girl-bossing as the villain. Even so, everything this Harley does is to avenge her beloved Mr. J, a storytelling trap from which the character had not yet escaped by 2002.

3. Lady Gaga (Joker: Folie à Deux) 2f2h5x

Lady Gaga is one of the best actresses ever to play a DC character. Sadly, her Harley Quinn is sabotaged by poor writing. In Joker: Folie à Deux, Harley’s entire personality is reduced to her obsession with the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix),  pushing her into a side role that never gets the opportunity to shine on her own. Gaga is still a sight to be seen, and she uses whatever opportunity she gets to give Harley more nuance. However, she is trapped in a sluggish movie that fails to leave a lasting impression. Maybe she could return as Harley in the future, in a project that allows her to showcase her talent properly.

2. sca Root-Dodson (Gotham) 6c3k65

While not officially named Harley Quinn, sca Root-Dodson’s portrayal of Ecco in Fox’s Gotham was clearly intended as the show’s version of the character. As episodes go by, Ecco even adopts a more Harley-like appearance and personality, coming as close as she can to the DC villain without angering Warner Bros. executives. This interpretation offered an interesting take on Harley’s origin, tying her closely to the proto-Joker character, Jeremiah Valeska (Cameron Monaghan). Still, as good as Root-Dodson is in the role, Warner’s decision to install a Bat-Embargo on the character prevented Gotham from having a full exploration of the classic Harley we know from comics.

1. Margot Robbie (DCEU) 16302o

Unsurprisingly, the best live-action Harley Quinn is Margot Robbie. Robbie starred as the villain in three movies from three very distinct filmmakers, each with their own vision. Yet, Robbie always made the character her own, knocking it out of the park thrice in a row. She is, by far, the best part of 2016’s Suicide Squad, which would be quite forgettable without her. After that, she helped redefine Harley’s role in the DCEU for 2020’s Birds of Prey, a criminally underrated comic book adaptation that suffered from trying too hard to turn Harley into DC’s Deadpool.

Finally, in 2021, Robbie gave us the definitive live-action version of the character in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. This last performance shows Harley’s incredible potential as a survivor who is far from being a ive victim. Instead, she’s someone who’s broken but still keeps her agency, a woman learning self-love and using her past mistakes to build a better future. Robbie is breathtaking in every instance where she played the villain, which is why it won’t be easy to dethrone our Harley Queen.

Five episodes into Suicide Squad Isekai, and fans are fairly impressed. The anime, based on the popular DC Comics team, the Suicide Squad, has garnered a 67% positive score from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

The series follows a familiar storyline in which A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller puts together a team of supervillains to carry out dangerous missions against all manner of threats — including the mythical, mystical, otherworldly, and supernatural — that have an alarmingly high chance of killing them (and, if they fail to complete said missions, bombs attached to their bodies will detonate and kill them anyway).

It features many familiar characters, including Harley Quinn, the Joker, King Shark, Peacemaker, Deadshot, Clayface, and Rick Flagg. However, given that “Isekai” translates from Japanese as “another world,” it also features a few surprises that aren’t usually associated with DC canon.

It premiered for the Western audience on June 27, 2024, and the latest episode, episode 5, was released on July 11, 2024. But when can fans expect the follow-up episode?

When does episode 6 start streaming? 1o1z61

Episode 6 of Suicide Squad Isekai will premiere on Hulu and Max on July 18, 2024, before being released to Japanese audiences three weeks later on Aug. 3.

Previous episodes are still available on both platforms, and we strongly recommend watching the series. The animation is crisp, the voice-acting in the English dubs is solid without featuring any familiar names (though the original Japanese version is subtitled if you wish to watch that), and the storylines are exciting and action-packed.

The world of DC has rallied around Harley Quinn and her Suicide Squad. But Margot Robbie isn’t the only one with dibs on the property.

Now, DC is also releasing an anime series — a stylistic yet different take on the anti-hero squad. Entitled Suicide Squad Isekai, the new series melds familiar DC characters with the beautiful visuals of the animated genre. The show will have many trademark characters from the team, including Harley, Katana, King Shark, and Peacemaker. It has even included the Joker, a controversial addition considering his treatment of Harley in the past.

However, this new series isn’t necessarily married to canonical DC, which means it can essentially do anything its twisted little heart is set on. In fact, it is essentially a mashup up of David Ayers and James Gunn’s films — with a bit of a twist. After ARGUS conscripts Harley into the ARGUS program, she and the rest of the squad fall into a world unlike anything they have encountered before. Isekai is Japanese for “another world,” and that is exactly what it is. Full of orcs and kingdoms, the squad must find their bearings in the new series.

The anime premiered for Western audiences on June 27, available on Max and Hulu. Three episodes are now available, with the fourth being imminent. The episode will air on none other than the U.S. Independence Day. Clear your schedule on July 4th to not just see Will Smith welcoming aliens to Earth in his titular sci-fi film, but also the fourth episode of Suicide Squad Isekai. Viewers can catch up on the previous three episodes by streaming on Hulu or Max.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s future is uncertain, with the developer shying away from sharing any details about season two amid crushing financial loss after the game’s catastrophic flop. However, leaks about the character have resurfaced.

In the latest Rocksteady game, we take the mantle of four characters from the renowned DC squad—Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, King Shark, and Harley Quinn. And, like the name suggests, we have to kill the Justice League, or rather four of it, who have been brainwashed by Brainiac.

This is a live-service game, with Rocksteady adding new chapters and episodes regularly. The first season was launched shortly after the game’s release and added the Joker to the roster. Now, there is a deafening silence about the second season, though, leaks have already suggested its villain.

Who is the villain of ‘Suicide Squad‘ Season 2 villain? 174s1x

A few leaks from early June indicate Ms. Freeze is a lock for season two

In the comics, Ms. Freeze is Nora Fries, the wife of Dr. Victor Fries, who is obviously no one else than Batman villain, Mr. Freeze himself. Originally, Nora is diagnosed with a terminal illness and is frozen by Victor so he can find a cure to her sickness. Eventually, she would become her husband’s partner-in-crime and would be known as Mrs. Freeze for a little while. In some iterations, she was always known as another supervillain by the name of Lazara, though, it doesn’t sound like the case this time around.

In the Suicide Squad’s roap, the second season was teased in an icy setup, hinting at the involvement of a character like Mrs. Freeze or Captain Cold.

With Suicide Squad opening to the multiverse concept by the end of its main story, it’s no surprise Rocksteady is trying to diversify the roster by adding different versions of characters. The game is set in the Arkhamverse, but the Joker added in March was an entirely fresh take rather than the one in the Arkham franchise.

While Nora is expected to be another character added to Suicide Squad, we hardly know any details about her involvement in the squad. No release date, powers, or any other information has been shared by Rocksteady so far. In fact, the second season should already be live, given how the first one was launched in March. With that in mind, you have to it it’s a bit worrying to see Rocksteady’s lack of updates about the matter.

The game’s failure reportedly cost Warner Bros. around $200 million. So we wouldn’t be surprised to hear about them ending the for the game sometime soon, but we wouldn’t expect it before the second season drops.

It’s been a rough few years for Marvel — the cinematic titan that once had people flocking to the theater has had a rather tepid response to most of its releases since Endgame, and now all hope is riding on Avengers 5 (and Deadpool 3 of course).

With all the Jonathan Majors drama from last year, the studio’s plan to feature Kang the Conqueror as its next big bad of the MCU seems to have been completely scuppered. However, there are rumors that Marvel has a plan for the fifth Avengers film, and if it manages to pull it off it could very well outdo Endgame.

The rumored plan for Avengers 5 6s6d1b

So what is this supposed super plan that could save the MCU? Well, according to a rumor shared by @comicodigy on X (formerly Twitter) the next film will feature the masters of evil as the villainous group the heroes will have to face off against. Apparently, this squad of evil-doers will include quite a few well known villains from the comics including Baron Zemo, Agatha, and even Doctor Doom to name just a few.

At first glance this sounds like great news, and plenty of fans are already excited to see this come to fruition on the big screen. But let’s pause for just one second. Is this really the best plan Marvel could come up with? If you ask me there is a pretty glaring problem with this approach.

The Problem with Marvel’s plan 195t40

It’s been done before! We’ve seen multiple villain storylines done in the MCU a ton of times and with varying degrees of success. Sure, films like Spider-Man: No Way Home were great, but for every one of those there’s an Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, M.O.D.O.K. and the Kang variants really didn’t help that movie out and it could have been better with just one villain. It’s not just a Marvel problem – DC did it with Suicide Squad and, well, we don’t talk about Suicide Squad anymore.

All this is to say, it’s a formula that Marvel has already done and will likely do again before Avengers 5 comes out. Let’s not forget, we already have a super villain team up akin to Suicide Squad coming from Marvel next year. I just think Marvel hasn’t thought this through, are they not worried that audiences will grow tired of the formula before the next Avengers?

Crossovers are cool, but bigger is not always better, the more characters added, the more the film runs the risk of becoming a bloated mess. Some fans are already criticizing the line-up, some of the villains might be cool, but many of them are D-listers at best. If you ask me, Marvel should dial it back with the villains. Endgame is a great movie, but the studio can still make a movie that’s better without overcrowding on the villain front.

The unpredictable and chaotic world of isekai has seen its fair share of protagonists, from sword-wielding slimes to reincarnated washing machines and even a spider. But Harley Quinn in an isekai anime? Now that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say, but here we are!

Warner Bros. Japan, in collaboration with Wit Studio, is venturing into what might just be its most ambitious anime crossover yet with Suicide Squad ISEKAI. After the 2018 Batman Ninja and the more recent My Adventures with Superman, it’s clear that Warner isn’t shy about dipping its beloved DC characters into the rich, often quirky ink of anime. For long-time DC fans, it’s a fresh way to see old favorites without having to squint at subtitles or wrestle with the intricacies of a totally foreign cast—unless you consider orcs and dragons “foreign”, which, fair point.

Okay, but when is Suicide Squad ISEKAI releasing? 641w3v

In Suicide Squad ISEKAI, Amanda Waller, the ever-resourceful puppeteer, pulls yet another one of her infamous strings, sending the Squad through a mysterious gate and into a realm filled with all the classic fantasy fixings. Our beloved band of rogues—Harley, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface, and King Shark—find themselves seemingly out of their universe. They have 72 hours to untangle a magical mess before the explosives implanted in their necks turn their field trip into a farewell tour. 

The adventure kicks off with a three-episode bang on June 27, 2024, on Max and Hulu. After that, keep your Tuesdays free because you’ll get a new episode each week, leading up to the grand finale on August 15, 2024. By then, if all goes according to Amanda Waller’s sinister plan, we’ll have witnessed emotional backstabbing to fill a grimoire. Or, at the very least, enough material to keep the water cooler conversations sparkling with “Did you see that?” moments.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will go down in gaming history as a cautionary tale. After all, Rocksteady Studios were once the undisputed kings of superhero games, dazzling the world with the fantastic Batman: Arkham trilogy.

After a nine-year wait they returned with the multiplayer-focused Suicide Squad earlier this year. Hopes weren’t exactly high after a disastrous preview that saw the game delayed for a full year, and the final product arrived to tepid reviews, skeptical players, and a myriad of technical issues.

Now Jason Schreier has performed a post-mortem on the game’s development, with inside sources spinning a tale of managerial incompetence, publisher greed, and countless poor decisions. This will be a familiar story to anyone with insight into the gaming industry and the full column is worth reading.

But it’s a comment on X about Suicide Squad‘s future that turned my head.

Shoved into an early grave 26w48

As a live service game, Suicide Squad was intended to have a multi-season roap ahead of it. Leaks indicate that this would have lasted at least four seasons, gradually introducing new playable characters while slowly bringing back the Justice League.

More specifically, we would have seen the return of the much-missed Kevin Conroy as Batman, with the release timing making this almost certainly his final performance. But, as per Schreier, that now seems like it’s not happening. In response to a query about the game’s future, he said that we can expect merely “barebones ”:

Many saw this coming. Suicide Squad‘s concurrent player numbers on Steam hover around 100-150 people, even with the game on deep discount so soon after launch. Even the introduction of the Joker as a playable character failed to move the needle, though that DLC release was met with groans when people realized they’d have to grind to unlock him.

We don’t know exactly what “barebones ” means, but as Schreier says the developers are now working on an update to Hogwarts Legacy I suspect it’ll be limited to technical patches and server updates than any major content releases. There’s a chance that some additional player characters will still be released, but Warner Bros. Interactive may have seen how poorly Joker sold and decided not to throw good money after bad.

In a lengthy post on X, Miller Ross said this tallied with what he’d heard and gave some more insight into what had been planned. The idea was that the core Suicide Squad story was patterned after Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame:

“The broad strokes (including post-launch) were nailed down between Infinity War and Endgame at a time when they dominated pop culture, and it takes clear inspiration from those films. The heroes lose, the credits roll… only for them to come back and get their revenge. That’s really it. It’s not the boogeyman so many people have blown it up to be. I’ve heard that [Sefton] Hill was a hardliner for leaving the audience shocked at the end of the game at the heroes seemingly having all died, and multiple Rocksteady developers I’ve spoken to characterized themselves as “begging” him to leave more clues regarding the Justice League’s inevitable return to help stymie some of the predictable backlash.”

This means that Suicide Squad may well fizzle out without a proper ending and Conroy’s final performance will be junked. If you’re feeling optimistic we might get what’s already in the can cobbled together into a couple of cutscenes to tie a bow on the narrative, but right now this feels like wishful thinking.

It’s safe to say anyone who bought this game at full price or spent money on its terrible cosmetics will be feeling pretty angry right now, and justifiably so. Then again, you can’t say you weren’t warned that this exact thing would happen, and the decaying corpses of Anthem, Redfall and Marvel’s Avengers should have dropped a big hint on how this was going to pan out.

Well fortunately lessons have been learned and Warner Bros. Interactive will never do anything so stupid again. No.. wait, hang on. Oh, my mistake, their head of games J.B. Perrette said in April that they want to ditch single-player campaigns to focus on:

“Live-service[s] where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis.”

… oh wonderful. Remind me how much these execs get paid again?

Pity Thunderbolts*. First, filming was held up for so long, due to script rewrites and the 2023 strikes, that two of its star-studded ensemble cast got bored and left the movie (buhbye, Steven Yeun and Ayo Edebiri). Then it was forced to suffer the indignity of having a random asterisk stuck on the end of its title.

With so much secrecy surrounding this one, it’s not like there’s too much hype flying around the film either as yet. Nor is Marvel going the right way about generating any at this rate. A new leaked synopsis for Thunderbolts* has hit the internet (via Daniel RPK), and unfortunately it’s leaving many fans feeling a little underwhelmed. Warning, potential plot spoilers ahead…

OK, here’s how it goes:

“Yelena, US Agent, Ghost, and Taskmaster are sent by Val to kill someone in a vault. They realize they’ve been set up and were meant to die on this mission. So they team up against their boss to take her down.”

As Bully Maguire might say, we were looking at some old superhero movies and it looks very… similar.

Thunderbolts* plot details seemingly confirm it’s Suicide Squad 3 in all but name 1r283c

Yes, that Thunderbolts* synopsis will definitely give some serious déjà vu to anyone who has seen a Suicide Squad movie. Comparisons to DC’s own team of supervillains and anti-heroes pressganged into doing good were always going to be hard to avoid, but this logline suggests director Jake Scheier’s movie won’t even attempt to hide its obvious inspirations.

The ragtag group of rogues being set up and left for dead by their untrustworthy female governmental spymaster? Swap Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Val out for Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller and that’s literally the plot of both 2016’s Suicide Squad and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. And don’t think fans haven’t noticed.

This paragraph-long premise can basically be boiled down to just three simple words;

If Bucky or someone doesn’t quote Will Smith’s iconic Suicide Squad line in Thunderbolts*, Marvel will have missed a trick.