Bruce Timm is set to reprise his Batman magic on-screen with the upcoming animated Batman: Caped Crusader series. The upcoming show is set in a parallel universe in the 40s and will present us with different incarnations of the iconic characters in the Batman lore.
Recently the first look of all the characters from the series was revealed. However, out of all the characters, Harley Quinn caught the most attention due to her race-swapping. The renowned partner of Joker from the comics is an Asian American in the upcoming show.
The Asian American Harley Quinn immediately raised a debate among fans. Several fans thought the show had changed their favorite character from the OG show. But Timm tried to clarify that the story is different and this is an alternate version of the Batman: The Animated Series character.
Why is Bruce Timm’s new Harley Quinn version unnecessarily hated?
We got the celebrated partner-in-crime of the Clown Prince of Crime when Bruce Timm co-created the character with Paul Dini for Batman: The Animated Series. Harley Quinn or Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel became one of the most famous female characters in pop culture. Now Timm has decided to have a different take on Harley Quinn in his new show, Batman: Caped Crusader.
The modern superhero media is highly infamous for race-swapping popular comic book characters in the adaptations. However, it must not be forgotten that race-swapping is unnecessary if it is forceful. An X user @DynamoSuperX has rightfully pointed out that this new Harley Quinn does not deserve the backlash as it’s a different version of the character from a parallel universe.
"harley quinn is not asian."
y'all, this is a parallel universe set in the 40s and bruce timm says this harley will be a mirrored version of the DCAU harley.
she's bruce wayne's therapist and her personalities are flipped and this is a scarier and more psychotic version. pic.twitter.com/U5Gs6xFMI6
— JOLLY J✨ (@DynamoSuperX) May 9, 2024
The fan has added that race-bending does not seem so unnecessary here as Bruce Timm wanted to create a “mirrored version” of the Batman: The Animated Series universe. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that Timm is the co-creator of the character. Hardly anybody knows how to handle the character better than him.
What did Bruce Timm say about the new Harley Quinn?
Soon after X-Men ’97 aired and took over the internet, many DC fans also wanted to get back their favorite DC Animated Universe (DCAU) in some way. It looks like their desire will soon be fulfilled as Bruce Timm’s animated Batman returns this year.
Timm is widely renowned for his DCAU works especially Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman: The New Adventures, and Batman Beyond. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bruce Timm revealed that they wanted their fans to get back to the world of B:TAS with the show but did not want it to be a repetition.
Harley Quinn has also received the same treatment as she is presented in a new Asian-American version. Batman: Caped Crusader‘s co-creator claimed that the OG character used to remain serious as Dr. Harleen Quinzel but fun and goofy on turning into the crazy supervillain. However, he wanted to reverse that trait in the new show.
“The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary.”
In the new show, Harley Quinn is also ripped off from her responsibility as a psychologist to Joker and the other insane villains at the Arkham Asylum. Here, she is a normal Gotham City psychiatrist, whose client is none other than Bruce Wayne himself. Besides her, Timm and the company took a different take with the other characters as well.
While everything surrounding the show looks promising, the fans are eager to know about the voice cast of the show soon. After the unfortunate death of the legendary Kevin Conroy, it will be exciting to see who takes up the job to voice Batman in the upcoming series.
Batman: Caped Crusader will be premiered on Amazon Prime on August 1, 2024, while Batman: The Animated Series can be streamed on Max.
