Over three seasons Arrow has been no stranger to the Suicide Squad (though perhaps less now with a movie in the works), but few could forget the excitement of the CW drama first teasing Harley Quinn with a brief cameo. That said, it seems Arrow may have had larger plans for Dr. Harleen Quinzel, ones that DC smashed with a giant sledgehammer.

Take this one with a modicum of salt for the moment, but according to Arrow star Willa Holland, the DC drama originally planned to incorporate Harley Quinn in a more significant capacity than her unnamed Season 2 cameo would suggest. Speaking at MCM London (via Flickering Myth), Holland revealed:

We had big plans for Harley. But, I guess something came down from DC execs that told us to shut it down. I mean we had that tease with the pigtails and the ARGUS outfit but, we’ll never see it. We would love to [have] Harley in Arrow but it will never happen.

Holland’s words run a bit counter to what we’d heard from producers Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg prior, in that both maintained that Harley’s “Suicide Squad” appearance was always intended to be more of an easter egg than anything else. Then again, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen DC put the kibosh on Suicide Squad characters, as Michael Rowe’s Floyd Lawton / Deadshot was reportedly killed off to make way for Will Smith’s iteration in the pop culture lexicon.

It’s admittedly hard to imagine a more significant role for Harley Quinn, given the Batman connotations it would carry, but did the CW series miss out on one of DC’s most colorful foes? Why might The Flash be allowed to exist in both movie and TV versions, but not Harley Quinn? You can watch the original appearance below, and stay tuned for the latest news on Arrow Season 4.

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