"Harley Quinn seems to like destruction for destruction's sake, and that's wonderful, but I feel like Barbara has more of a plan," she explained, adding that Barbara is "a little bit more intellectual in her approach toward climbing the ladder and taking over the underworld," while Harley Quinn represents the "madness and mayhem" also seen in The Joker. As such, Richards believes something major would need to happen to unhinge Barbara and remove "that kind of scheming side of her" before she could become Harley Quinn.Despite going through some major changes last season, Richards said Barbara's transformation thus far isn't really in line with the DC villain.
"She's like another being now, and I think that being is not so close to the Harley Quinn character, even though she's still obviously a little crazy, but she now has more of a ruthless nature to her," she said of Barbara's current state.
Regarding the character's potential to appear on the show, Gotham's executive producer John Stevens previously said "we’ll be seeing a character — perhaps not this season, but in times to come — who can be a forerunner for Harley Quinn." Fellow executive producer Ken Woodruff later told IGN that "You may have already seen Harley as a person that you thought you had met and known for a long time" and that the producers "reserve the right" to surprise viewers with that sort of character revelation should they choose to go that route with introducing Harley.
For more on Gotham, check out IGN's review of last week's episode. Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his video content on YouTube.