A few days ago, Margot Robbie went all Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) on us when she revealed the official title of her next DCEU outing, and since you probably haven’t memorized it by now, we’ll reprint the name in full here: Birds of Prey (and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
Yes, it’s a mouthful, and just as no one mentions Birdman by its full name, most of us will probably stick with referring to Cathy Yan’s upcoming film as “Birds of Prey” under most circumstances. Nonetheless, Harley’s own co-creator, Paul Dini seems to think that Warner Bros. nailed it with this one, taking to Facebook to express his enthusiasm for the wordy and elaborate subtitle:
“I love the new movie title because I often have Harley scribble nonsense and wacky thoughts all over things, like her therapist’s pad, or my introduction to the Sirens book. So this subtitle reads as classic Quinnsanity to me. One more thing to be thankful about this week.”
Robbie’s take on the character didn’t get off to the best start with the critically panned Suicide Squad, but few would single out this casting choice as one of the film’s bigger faults, suggesting that the Clown Princess of Crime could do just fine with the right material.
Of course, while Harley’s apparently the only character big enough to get her name in the title, she’ll be joined by an assortment of DCEU newcomers, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez and Ella Jay Basco as Huntress, Black Canary, Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain respectively. On the antagonist front, meanwhile, is Ewan McGregor as Black Mask, whom some fans are already hoping won’t be a one-film villain.
The cast is said to be assembling for their first scenes in January, and given the DCEU’s shaky track record, here’s hoping that the commercial disappointment of Justice League was the wake-up call that Warner needed. It feels like every entry in this franchise is hailed in advance as the one where they finally get it right, but as last year’s Wonder Woman showed, that sometimes even turns out to be true.
Anyway, once again, that name’s Birds of Prey (and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and it’s headed for cinemas on February 7th, 2020.
