The first trailer for The Suicide Squad debuted yesterday , and fans are already analyzing it for clues about everything from potential character deaths to references to things elsewhere in the DC universe.
A few characters in the movie were also in 2016's Suicide Squad , and of those Harley Quinn is the one who has had the most interaction with other members of DC lore as she also appeared in last year's Birds of Prey . Of course, though, her most notable tie in DC Comics history is to the Joker. Even though the couple broke up offscreen during the events of Birds of Prey , a clip from this new trailer shows that her disdain for the Clown Prince of Crime still lingers.
THROWING SHADE
While Harley Quinn is interrogating the Thinker along with several other members of the Suicide Squad, she tells him "If we find out you have personalized license plates, you die."
While the other members of the team are confused by her statement, a DC fan on Twitter figured out that it is probably an Easter egg referencing the first Suicide Squad movie.
The fan above deduced that Harley is liking referring to the Joker's "HAHAHA" license plate as seen in Suicide Squad .
THROWING SHADE
This fan is likely correct in their assumption that this is a case of Harley Quinn throwing shade on the Joker, as they are currently broken up in the DCEU, and Birds of Prey showed that it was far from a cordial split.
While The Suicide Squad has always technically been a sequel of sorts to Suicide Squad , the poor reception to the first, the fact that only a few characters are crossing over from the first movie to this one, and that James Gunn is clearly taking the franchise in a new direction has made it seem as though there won't be a lot of references to the original in this film.
Though it is unlikely one would need to watch the first in order to follow the story of the second, both are set in the DCEU and the trailer shows that past events in the franchise are fair game for referencing, though there probably won't be too many instances of this in The Suicide Squad .
The Suicide Squad releases theatrically and on HBO Max August 6.
