BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN Animated Film Cast Announced

Fans of the classic Harley Quinn rejoice!

Empire has revealed the principal voice cast for Batman and Harley Quinn, a new DC Comics animated movie direct to home video, executive produced by Bruce Timm and in his classic animation style that began with 1992's Batman: The Animated Series.

According to the article, Batman and Harley Quinn will feature "the reluctant team-up of Batman, Nightwing and Harley Quinn to try and stop a global catastrophe caused by Poison Ivy and Jason Woodrue, AKA the Plant-Master."

Kevin Conroy will once again voice Batman, after his previous work in Batman: The Killing Joke.  Loren Lester will reprise his character Nightwing, whom he originated as Robin with Conroy on Batman: The Animated Series.

"So many fans have asked when there will be another Batman: The Animated Series," said Lester, "and this film really captures that sensibility and essence that people loved about the original series.  That makes perfect sense when you know Bruce Timm was at the helm of both.  The difference is we're not restricted by the networks for this film, so we can take the story and characters in more mature areas, and explore more about them as three-dimensional human beings with human feelings and human desires that we often couldn’t explore in the series."

As for Harley Quinn herself, she will be voiced by Melissa Rauch.  Rauch is best known as Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and appeared as Summer on the HBO series True Blood.

"I love that Harley is a badass and, beyond that, that she uses her humor as another weapon in her arsenal," said Rauch.  "She knows just how to diffuse a situation with her humor, and how to incite a situation with her sarcasm.  It's a dream role."

Regarding Harley's voice, she added, "I knew Harley had a higher pitched tone, and a bit of a New York accent — and I come from a New Jersey family where everyone could be former gun molls.  So I wanted to give a nod to my background without being as shrill.  In all honesty, I used to speak exactly like that — my acting school professors really worked the accent out of me.  So it was fun to find those tones and accent again."

Paget Brewster will voice Poison Ivy, after previously voicing Lana Lang in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Lois Lane in Justice League: Gods and Monsters.  

Additional cast members include John DiMaggio, Eric Bauza, Rob Paulsen, Robin Atkin Downes, Mindy Sterling, and Trevor Devall.

Batman and Harley Quinn will be released on digital download, Blu-ray and DVD sometime this summer.