The director of Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) says the upcoming DC film is not really a "team-up" movie. Starring Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, and Ewan McGregor, Birds of Prey finally brings the comic book series of the same name to the big screen in live-action.
One thing that has been made clear about Birds of Prey is it is moving far away from The Suicide Squad. Not only is it a completely new narrative, but Quinn even states she has broken up with The Joker in the new film’s trailer, leaving all connections to the 2016 DC project behind. Despite Robbie being front and center of the marketing, and a prominent voice in the trailer, Birds of Prey is not Harley Quinn’s film. The film feels a little different, as it does not fall into the ‘Chosen One’ trope, or have one savior, one villain. During a recent set visit, Screen Rant had an opportunity to discuss this matter with director Cathy Yan.
When asked about this, Yan said it was “something I gravitated to when I read the script.” She also reiterated Birds of Prey isn’t "The Harley Quinn Movie." According to Yan, “It’s truly an ensemble film, it’s not even a team. You see them as a team right now, but we really spend time with each of these women, and they are very much the protagonists in the film.” She jokes that they have “two villains” and “five protagonists,” each being their own character, and each feeling like a lead. Yan believes a story like this has not been told in this kind of way, as there is not “one villain or one savior.” She said in this film, “Life is not so black-and-white,” and they are intentionally “trying to do something a little different here.”
With Harley Quinn being an integral part of this story, the approach and shades of grey within Birds of Prey do make sense. As Yan pointed out in her interview, “Harley herself is an antihero, so sometimes, she’s really good and really heroic, and sometimes she’s terrible and irresponsible, and can do a lot of harm. She’s such a complicated character, so all of the characters in the film are too.”
Yan’s words do add to the intrigue surrounding Birds of Prey, as she makes the film's setting sound like an unpredictable place where anything and everything could happen. Also, with the director’s statement that this isn’t your standard superhero (or antihero) team-up, it should bring even more excitement to the project - as it sounds like the creative team is doing everything in their power to uphold the true essence of the characters they are dealing with.
The fact it is also starting anew and moving away from the shared universe is promising. Birds of Prey could be the start of a string of films that give Robbie the platform she deserves to shine in her role as Harley Quinn.
