Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn Wish Can Fix A 25-Year-Old Batman Mistake

After Batman & Robin depicted Poison Ivy as a one-note villain, Pamela Isley can be redeemed in a co-starring role with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

Margot Robbie’s wish for a Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy romance can finally do the nature-obsessed Batman villain justice after more than 25 years of absence from the big screen. In both DC Comics and her animated TV show, Harley Quinn breaks free from her toxic relationship with the Joker to find true love with her fellow Batman foe Pamela Isley, a.k.a. Poison Ivy. Margot Robbie’s live-action Harley Quinn already achieved the first part, but Poison Ivy has yet to make her DCU debut more than two decades after Uma Thurman first brought her to the big screen in Joel Schumacher’s 1997 Batman & Robin.

Despite Poison Ivy’s absence in recent live-action DC movies, a Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy romance is still a possibility. In fact, Harley Quinn actress Margot Robbie herself is actively campaigning for it. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Margot Robbie said, “I cannot tell you how hard I’ve been pushing for that. I want it too. Honestly, when I pictured, I always picture like Poison Ivy in the comics. I don’t really actually picture an actress doing it, but I agree, that would be so good.” A DC movie starring Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy would present a much-needed wholesome romance with plenty of villainous antics in the vein of Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad.

Related: Chris O’Donnell’s Canceled Robin Movie Could Have Redeemed The Sidekick

Batman & Robin’s Failures Mean Poison Ivy Has Wrongly Been Ignored

Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin caused a great shift in Batman movies and the superhero genre as a whole. Their extremely campy tone led to the rise of grittier comic book adaptations like Batman Begins and X-Men. However, they have also kept DC characters like Robin, Mr. Freeze, and Poison Ivy away from the cinematic landscape to this day. Despite their popularity and relevance to Batman’s mythos, they haven’t appeared in any of the three big-screen Batman franchises produced so far.

Joel Schumacher’s Batman sequel depicted its Batman villains in quite an inaccurate way. In Batman & Robin, the smart Bane became a sluggish henchman, the stoic Mr. Freeze became a pun-crazy goofball, and the usually indomitable Poison Ivy became a purely evil seductress with the only goal to bring down the dynamic duo. Obviously, these characters are much more than that. As an ecoterrorist, Poison Ivy prioritizes her love for nature above any allegiance, which makes often makes her a supervillain, but doesn’t necessarily make her evil. Yet, Poison Ivy learns to care for other people when she falls in love with Harley Quinn, with whom she shares a tender relationship that completely contrasts the constant abuse that the Joker inflicted on Harley. Batman & Robin didn’t do justice to Poison Ivy’s unique motivation and personality, but just like Two-Face, the Riddler, and Bane, a new movie can redeem her with a modernized treatment.

Poison Ivy Would Be Perfect For Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn

Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn already forged her own path away from the Joker and learned to be by herself for the first time since the Joker thew her into that vat of Ace chemicals. She became a great team player (with three different teams) and found her heroic side despite her dark past. While Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker meets Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn in Joker: Folie a Deux, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn could meet her own love interest in Poison Ivy, and without the toxicity that the Joker’s presence entails. A DC movie centered around a healthy relationship between two anti-heroes would be a fresh concept that would also give Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn more material to explore, not to mention the world of creative possibilities it would provide as the DCU’s first-ever big-screen queer couple.

More: Why Joker’s Romance With Harley Quinn Could Be Very Different In Joker 2