When Birds of Prey lands early next year, it’ll mark the second appearance of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. It’ll have been nearly four years since we saw her make her debut as the fan favorite Clown Princess of Crime, but Warner Bros. has big plans for the actress and the character moving forward. In fact, it looks like the BoP franchise won’t even be big enough to contain her.
We Got This Covered has been informed by our sources – the same ones who told us Black Mask will be gay in the film, and that Robert Pattinson will be playing Batman, both of which have been confirmed – that a sequel is on the way, but it won’t feature Robbie as Harley. This will be worked into the plot of the first movie, we’re told, as a scene at the end will explain why she won’t be around for Birds of Prey 2. We’re not sure what this scene involves, but it’s not too much of a leap to suggest that it sets up her role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which has been all but confirmed at this point.
Harley was always an unlikely choice to lead a Birds of Prey film in the first place anyways, as she’s not usually a member of the team in the comics – in fact, Barbara Gordon, the leader of the group in almost every version, won’t appear at all. Without Harley, though, and with the Batgirl movie in the works, maybe the plan is to introduce Babs in the sequel?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s Black Canary and Rosie Perez’s Renee Montoya, meanwhile, are all expected to return for BoP 2 and we’ve also previously heard that spinoffs for all of these heroines are in early development. Despite the bad press surrounding the movie of late, then, it sounds like WB still has high hopes that it can kick off an unfolding franchise.
We’ll see how it fares when Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) hits theaters on February 7th, 2020.
