Batman and Harley Quinn trailer: The Dark Knight gets an unlikely ally

The Dark Knight isn’t big on clowning around, but he doesn’t have much choice in Batman and Harley Quinn, the latest installment of the direct-to-video animated franchise known as DC Universe Original Movies.

EW has an exclusive look at the movie’s trailer, which finds Batman and Nightwing trying to foil a plot by Poison Ivy to bring about a verdant apocalypse. To do so, they have to enlist the help of Ivy’s old pal — and their old nemesis — Harley Quinn, whose mercurial style definitely rubs Batman the wrong way.

When Harley asks Bats to put in a good word for her with the parole board, for example, he quickly shuts her down. So why should she help him?

“As insane as you are, you enjoy living,” Batman says. Touché.

With its 48 Hrs.-style antics, Batman and Harley Quinn promises to take a more comedic tack than DC’s recent animated offerings, such as the controversial adaptation of The Killing Joke.

The voice cast includes Kevin Conroy as Batman and Loren Lester as Nightwing (reprising their roles from Batman: The Animated Series and several other projects), and also features a new Harley in Melissa Rauch, of The Big Bang Theory.

Batman and Harley Quinn is slated for release this summer. Watch the trailer above.