Aquaman, Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984 are scheduled and on the way, but after that, the DC Extended Universe's future has been shrouded in mystery. This is not an exaggeration, the franchise has approximately 20 movies in various stages of development, but not all of those will see the light of day, and others are definitely being prioritized. Birds of Prey is among that latter bunch, making remarkable steps moving forward over the last five months. Now we can count on Birds of Prey being the next DCEU movie to arrive after Wonder Woman 1984, as it's been dated for February 7, 2020.
Arriving just three months after Wonder Woman 1984, Birds of Prey will kick off the DCEU in 2020, per THR. Originally Warner Bros had the February 14 date of that year reserved, but now the studio is delivering Birds of Prey a week earlier, and that's probably for the best. Bond 25 was recently moved from November 9, 2020 to February 14, 2020 after director Cary Fukunaga was hired to replace Danny Boyle, and the other competition that opening weekend includes an untitled live action Disney movie and Legally Blonde 3. Birds of Prey is much better off enticing people into theaters a week earlier, as the only other major movies currently scheduled for that date is Peter Rabbit 2 and The Loud House.
It was first announced that Birds of Prey was in development in November 2016, but once Cathy Yan was hired to direct last April, then the project really started picking up steam. While superhero movies are normally associated with traditional blockbuster released periods, i.e. summer and November/December, as Deadpool and Black Panther showed us, people will come out in droves for the right kind of adventure starring costumed protagonists in February. It remains to be seen if Birds of Prey will come close to earning the kind of critical and commercial receptions those other two movies did, but at least by coming out earlier in the year, it has a better chance of standing out.
No plot details for Birds of Prey have been revealed yet, but it will see Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, last seen at the end of Suicide Squad being broken out of prison by The Joker, crossing paths with characters like Black Canary, Huntress, Detective Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain. The search for actresses to fill those roles is underway, and reportedly the movie's big bad will be Gotham City crime boss Roman Sionis, a.k.a. Black Mask. Bumblebee's Christina Hodson wrote the script, and she's also been tapped to pen the Batgirl movie.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates regarding Birds of Prey and the rest of the DCEU, but for now, you can learn what else the superhero franchise has in development by looking through our DC movies guide.
