Back in 2020, DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and Spotify announced a partnership to bring exclusive scripted podcasts to the audio streaming platform. After the inaugural project Batman: Unburied launched to great success, a new audio drama seemed inevitable. Sure enough today the second project from this partnership was announced today. Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind is a brand-new audio series starring Christina Ricci and Billy Magnussen as the respective characters. Check out the audio trailer here.
According to the press release, “the series tells a new story from the perspective of one of Gotham City’s most iconic villains.”
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 (Justin Hartley), and Gotham City forever.
This isn’t Ricci’s first venture into the DC Universe, having voiced Terra in the Teen Titans: The Judas Contract animated film.
Rounding out the cast are Amy Sedaris (The Mandalorian, At Home with Amy Sedaris) as Harleen’s Aunt Rose, Andre Royo (Empire, The Spectacular Now) as Arnold Wesker aka The Ventriloquist, Stephen Root (Barry, King Of The Hill) as Harleen’s boss Grunfeld, Fred Melamed (Barry, WandaVision) as Harleen’s co-worker Bob, Mary Holland (Senior Year) as Margaret Pye aka Magpie, and Elias Koteas (Goliath, Chicago PD) as Harleen’s father Nicky Quinzel.
The 7-episode series, written and directed by Eli Horowitz will premiere with all episodes available to listeners on January 31, 2023.