The DC live-action universe had a rocky start, but has found its stride in the last few years. The next blockbuster set within the DCEU is Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). As the title suggests, this will be an R-rated vehicle for Margot Robbie's femme fatale, pairing her with a group of Gotham gal pals in the process. Robbie is a producer on the film as well, and recently explained why she put that project ahead of the previously announced Gotham City Sirens.
In the comics, both the Sires and Birds of Prey are female-led superhero team in Gotham City. And when the DCEU had its shakeup after Justice League, a ton of potential movies were announced. This included both Birds of Prey and Gotham City Sirens. Margot Robbie is the architect behind Harley Quinn's arc on screen, and recently explained why the latter movie got pushed to the side. As she put it,
Whilst I was researching the character I started to read Birds of Prey and first I fell in love with Huntress, and I started looking into all of that. I was like, ‘Wow, there’s so many cool female DC characters and no one knows anything about any of them!’ So what if we had a platform for fans to get to know and fall in love with some of these other amazing women? Focusing on the Gotham City Sirens, there were only three of us and we were all well known, whereas with Birds of Prey you can pick any grouping for that, and I thought that might be the perfect platform to introduce some female characters who might really have some legs in the DC Universe.
Well, that certainly clears things up. While there's no telling what DC movies might be coming down the pipeline in the future, Margot Robbie ultimately landed on Birds of Prey because of the mixture of characters that could be introduced. Cue the killer cast that will be occupying DCEU's Gotham City.
Margot Robbie's comments to Nerdist show how methodically Margot Robbie approached Harley Quinn's second appearance on the big screen. As a producer Robbie had a ton of control during the movie's development, helping to chose the director and cast. While Warner Bros. and Robbie were clearly all in on Harley, the Academy Award nominated actress wanted to pair her signature character with a larger group of women.
As Margot Robbie mentions, the Gotham City Sirens are typically a trio of three major Batman femme fatales: Harley, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. Ultimately Robbie thought it would be more interesting to include a larger team, one populated with slightly less iconic characters. As for Catwoman, Zoe Kravitz will play the iconic character in Matt Reeves' The Batman, before hopefully crossing over with the Birds of Prey sometime in the future.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) will arrive in theaters on February 7th. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
