Mary Elizabeth Winstead says her Birds of Prey co-star Jurnee Smollett is “amazing” and is “going to kill” her solo Black Canary movie. Winstead first came to prominence in a recurring role in the soap opera Passions, later moving on to a series of horror films and television series, including Wolf Lake and Final Destination 3. She would also go on to play Bruce Willis’ daughter, Lucy Gennero-McClane, in 2007’s Live Free or Die Hard and again in 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard.
In 2018 Winstead was cast as Helena Bertinelli AKA Huntress in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). While Winstead was the first actress to bring the DC superhero to the big-screen, Huntress had previously been portrayed by Ashley Scott in the short-lived 2002 Birds of Prey television series, and by Jessica De Gouw in the CW Arrowverse. More recently, it was announced that Winstead’s co-star Smollett would be reprising her own Birds of Prey character for a solo film destined for release on HBO Max.
Off the back of Winstead’s latest Netflix release, Kate, the actress sat down with THR and was asked about Smollett’s return to the DCEU. Suggesting the film has the potential to “be so much fun,” Winstead was full of praise for Smollett and her approach to Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary. While Winstead admits that she doesn’t know if this new film will include Huntress, she seems more than willing to reprise the character if she is asked to. Check out her full comments below:
If it came together in the right way, it would be so much fun. I know that Jurnee [Smollett] is doing a Black Canary movie, which I’m so excited for. She’s amazing and she’s going to kill that, so I can’t wait to see where that goes. I don’t know if that’s going to involve Huntress or not, but I love that character and I love the version that we were able to create in Birds of Prey. But I also know there are lots of different versions and iterations of Huntress that have been out there before, whether it be in TV or comic books. So there’s lots of different places she could be taken. If that’s with me, that would be really cool, and I’d love to see where that goes. But I’m also happy to watch whatever direction it goes in.
Winstead’s willingness to return to the role of Huntress is certainly good news for Birds of Prey fans who are eager to see the film eventually land its own sequel. While the 2020 film generally received favorable reviews, many DC fans quite rightly pointed out that the movie largely served as a vehicle for Margot Robbie’s return to the role Harley Quinn, and the titular Birds of Prey team did not even fully form until the film’s final moments. With Black Canary getting her own solo adventure, coupled with the announcement of Leslie Grace’s DCEU debut as Batgirl, DC fans are keeping their fingers crossed that these decisions may ultimately lead to a proper Birds of Prey team-up.
Whether Winstead will make a cameo appearance in Black Canary remains to be seen, but it is nice to see her enthusiasm for the project regardless of how Warner Bros. decides to approach it. With the original Birds of Prey screenwriter Christina Hodson providing the script for Batgirl, even if Winstead’s Huntress misses out on Black Canary, she may still have other avenues for a potential DCEU return. Until then, DC fans still have a veritable feast of content ahead of them in the coming years.
Source: THR
