The Hollywood Reporter broke quite the juicy scoop out of Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment today, as the two are apparently starting work on a spin-off to this August’s villain ensemble movie, Suicide Squad, which will feature Margot Robbie’s psychotic villainess, Harley Quinn in a lead role! According to the report, Margot Robbie has already inked a deal to reprise her role as the villain, and could very well be the movie’s lead antagonist.
Yes, this untitled project is not a solo Harley Quinn movie, but instead aims to be a female-driven blockbuster that incorporates several notable female characters from Batman lore. THR claims that Batgirl will be featured as one of the movie’s main heroes, along with the Birds of Prey, an all-female squad of crimefighters from DC Comics lore, which has included Batgirl among their ranks, as well as heroines like Black Canary and Huntress, both of whom have been featured on The CW’s DC-themed drama, Arrow, as well as Katana (another Arrow alum that will also appear in a different incarnation in Suicide Squad this August), Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Hawk and Dove, Big Barda, and Starling, among many others. The team was also the subject of a short-lived CW series, aptly titled ‘Birds of Prey‘, involving the squad succeeding a Batman that had abandoned Gotham City, and fighting against a vengeful Harley Quinn motivated by the apparent death of The Joker.
Given the fact that the Birds of Prey have a history with Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Catwoman, themselves the key forces of an all-female group of Batman antagonists called the ‘Gotham City Sirens’, it’s probable that this spin-off to Suicide Squad will probably be a hybrid Birds of Prey/Gotham City Sirens movie, spotlighting female forces on both sides of the law in the Gotham City of the DC Extended Universe, which made its debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this past March. On a related note, Jena Malone’s cut character, who will be present in the home viewing release’s extended cut of the movie, is believed to be Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, and could serve as a way to set up this female-driven spin-off movie, which could end up being slotted into one of the mysterious dates that Warner Bros. has already booked for unknown DC Extended Universe movies, one on October 5th, 2018, and the other on November 1st, 2019.
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