While Suicide Squad's critical reception left a lot to be desired this past summer, many agree that Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was one of the movie's shining players. Months before that movie hit theaters, there were reports about a Harley Quinn spinoff featuring other notable female DC heroes and villains, so it's no surprise that Warner Bros wants more Harley in the DC Extended Universe. Now that project is moving full steam ahead, only it won't be a Birds of Prey movie as many have suspected. It will be Gotham City Sirens.
According to THR, Suicide Squad director David Ayer will re-team with Margot Robbie to helm a Gotham City Sirens movie, which will see Harley Quinn teaming up with other "top female villains" from the DC universe. Along with reprising Harley, Robbie is also executive producing. Sherlock Holmes 3's Geneva Robertson-Dworet is tackling the screenplay, while Geoff Johns and Jon Berg will also be producing. For all the non-comic book fans out there, Gotham City Sirens was a series that saw Harley adventuring with Catwoman and Poison Ivy, meaning that their inclusion in the movie is likely, though not confirmed at this time.
Gotham City Sirens was originally published from June 2009 to August 2011, lasting 26 issues total. Over those two years, Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy got into shenanigans in their home city and crossed paths with other prominent DC heroes and villains, mainly from the Batman family. Since the upcoming Batman movie can't fit all of his rogues gallery into the one story, Gotham City Sirens is an excellent way to spotlight his three most prominent female adversaries in their own story. Since the stars are villains, it will be interesting to see whether the conflict will derive from dealing with other villains or if Harley and her pals will go up against some DC heroes, like Batgirl and the Birds of Prey.
It is peculiar that Warner Bros would bring in David Ayer to direct Gotham City Sirens. As mentioned earlier, Suicide Squad, while commercially successful, didn't receive a lot of positive reviews overall. Granted, it could be argued that studio interference and Ayer having to rush writing the script were more responsible for the negative reception than Ayer's actual directing, but even then, maybe it would have been a better decision to find someone new to oversee Gotham City Sirens, if only to provide a fresh perspective. Still, since Ayer isn't writing the script this time around, that should ease the load off his shoulders somewhat.
The article also mentions that a Suicide Squad sequel is still in development, as a well as a spinoff starring Harley Quinn's Squad teammate Deadshot. However, Gotham City Sirens was the "most furthest along," and given both Harley's popularity and Margot Robbie's lauded performance, the studio wanted to jump on that first. Say what you will about the DCEU, they're certainly not lacking for material.
Gotham City Sirens hasn't been assigned a release date yet, but there is an untitled DC film slated for November 1, 2019, so perhaps it will seize that spot. We'll keep you up to date on the project's progress as more news comes in.
