Margot Robbie returning to Harley Quinn for a 'Birds of Prey' movie hell yes
It looks like Warner Bros. has finally cracked a plan for bringing Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn back to theaters in something not called Suicide Squad.
The studio has hired up-and-coming filmmaker Cathy Yan to direct a Birds of Prey movie, which will bring Robbie back in a lead role. The super-team of DC heroines has appeared in many configurations over the years, though Harley hasn't ever been a formal member of the crew.
The Variety story confirming Yan's involvement also notes that shooting is expected to begin near the end of the year, after Robbie's work on Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is finished. The script by Christina Hodson -- who is also working on a Batgirl script for WB -- is still being tweaked.
There's a lot of exciting news here: Yan is the second female DC Extended Universe director, after Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins. She's working off of a script penned by another woman, and they're telling a story about an all-woman squad of DC badasses.
There are plenty of questions, though. Variety's report refers to Robbie's Harley as a "crazed supervillain," which is accurate, but also means this news of a movie based on an all-female superhero team is leading with the reveal of the villain.
Further, the core members of the current Birds of Prey lineup are Black Canary, Huntress, and... Batgirl. Hodson wrote scripts for Birds of Prey and Batgirl both, so there are immediately questions about what the super-team's big screen lineup will look like.
With Robbie set to star and a shooting schedule seemingly in place, Birds of Prey -- assuming that's the title -- is evidently much further along than Batgirl or Ava DuVernay's in-development New Gods. But this particular reveal also raises more questions than it answers.
Assuming all of these things -- Robbie's participation, the director hiring, the production plan -- are locked, you can expect to hear plenty more about Birds of Prey in the coming months as the cast firms up and story details start to slip out.
Find showtimes and theaters near you for Birds of Prey
Topics Film
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
