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The DC Universe series Harley Quinn has made one of its trademarks some truly brilliant voice-casting, from Tony Hale as Doctor Psycho to Sanaa Lathan as Catwoman to Christopher Meloni as Commissioner Gordon. But perhaps one of its greatest coups is bringing in one of TV's greatest on-screen villains to play one of the comic book world's greatest villains: Specifically, Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul star Giancarlo Esposito as Lex Luthor — a fresh take on the character which Collider can confirm includes making him a person of color.

During a recent Collider Connected interview, Esposito talked about the many different types of roles he's gotten to play recently as part of the modern entertainment landscape. This includes voice acting, with one of his most prominent roles being that of Superman's most notorious nemesis in the anarchic world of Harley Quinn.

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Image via DC Universe

"I remember Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, which excited me so much, I'm a big fan of his from back in his big film days, from The French Connection," Esposito says about the chance to play the character. "It really a wonderful opportunity to be able to do that... What I've always desired is to be unconventional in the roles that I play, and how I play them, because it's not just to be different, it's to bring something original to the table."

Via email, Harley Quinn showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker tell Collider that when it came to casting, "we were huge fans of Giancarlo. It was one of those situations where we wanted someone who could bring an intensity but also pull off jokes, which is incredibly challenging. There are so many examples in Giancarlo's body of work where he's been both terrifying and wryly funny. He's just a brilliant actor. To be honest, we were almost certain he'd say no, so we had a bunch of backup names ready, and then for some reason, he decided he wanted to do it and we all flipped out."

While the live-action actors who have previously played Lex have traditionally been white, in animated form Luthor has been a bit ambiguous in the past, though the 1990s version of the character is said to have been visually inspired by Greek actor Telly Savalas (and was voiced by a white actor). But Halpern and Schumacker say that Harley Quinn "does conceive of Lex Luthor to be a person of color. We're not sure if we are the first to make Lex a POC, but DC was supportive when we said we wanted to go in that direction, which was cool.”

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Image via AMC

It's a refreshing decision, especially as animated series currently face a reckoning when it comes to casting white voice actors as Black characters. But when this interview was conducted two weeks ago, Esposito was just excited to talk about the challenge of taking on an iconic villain like Lex, "because he is different than what we have expected and brilliantly cast with me as the voice — because, you know, many people who watch may not know who I am in the beginning, and they may not have any idea what my skin color is. It has always been my dream to play characters who don't have to be defined by that, and I was really pleased that they felt like I was the guy that to do that voice work."

Harley Quinn is streaming now on DC Universe, and according to WarnerMedia will soon be available on HBO Max.

Look for our full Giancarlo Esposito interview on Collider this Wednesday, and if you missed what he said about working on The Mandalorian or being part of the original cast of Da 5 Bloods, click through.