Dr Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, is about to share her tale with the world with a new podcast drama. The voice of DC’s most well-known jester is provided by Wednesday’s Christina Ricci in Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind, a brand-new audio drama from DC, Warner Bros., and Spotify.
Billy Magnussen plays the Joker and Justin Hartley plays Bruce Wayne in the seven-episode series, which is written and directed by Eli Horowitz. All the episodes will debut on 31 January. While giving listeners a taste of Ricci and Magnussen’s interpretations of the iconic characters, an audio trailer currently available on Spotify also gives listeners a hint that Harley will have much more agency in her relationship with the Joker than has previously been shown in some of DC’s prior comics and media adaptations.
The official description of Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind reads: We’ve heard Harley Quinn’s origin story — the one where she was manipulated into being the Joker’s doting, mad lover. But what if there’s more to it? What if there’s a Gotham City where Harley let The Joker believe she loved him, to get what she needed? When we meet Dr Harleen Quinzel, she’s fresh out of grad school, a new psychologist at Arkham Asylum, determined to help the patients her colleagues have written off. But her dad is sick, and in need of an expensive, life-saving operation she can’t afford. Pushed to her breaking point, Harleen is tired of playing by the rules. So when she meets ‘Patient J,’ a magnetic inmate able to manipulate everyone but her, Harleen makes a fateful decision: to use her relationship with the Joker to get what she wants, leading both of them down a dangerous path that will change them, Bruce Wayne, and Gotham City forever.
The other cast members include Amy Sedaris as Harley’s Aunt Rose, Andre Royo as Arnold Wesker/The Ventriloquist, Stephen Root as Harley’s boss Grunfeld, Fred Melamed as Harley’s co-worker Bob, Mary Holland as Margaret Pye/Magpie and Elias Koteas as Harley’s father Nicky Quinzel.
Following 2022’s Batman Unburied, which was written by David S. Goyer and starred Winston Duke as Bruce Wayne, Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind is the second project born out of a multi-year agreement between Warner Bros. and Spotify to create audio content starring DC’s heroes.
