The return of the actress as the iconic Harley Quinn is not assured in the new DC universe that James Gunn and Peter Safran are planning.
James Gunn has just announced his plans as the new boss, along with Peter Safran, of DC Studios and what we already knew has become clear: they are coming changes to the superhero universe of Warner Bros. At the moment only titles are known and that the intentions of the new tandem at the head of the franchise go through not announcing dates or planning a closed calendar before the scripts for each of the projects are finalized. We don’t know names either, although Henry Cavill is left out for now and the returns of Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and Zachary Levi as Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam, respectively, are neither confirmed nor denied.
“There are no reasons why all the people you’ve mentioned couldn’t be part of the DC Universe. We haven’t decided yet which story we want to tell that incorporates Shazam or Aquaman,” Safran said in his statements. A) Yes, the plans that had been in place to date have been put on the brakes and its future remains, for the moment, up in the air, with great expectations on the part of the fans.
The change in the board of directors of DC Studios also does not shed light on the future of Margot Robbie with Harley Quinn, who has already worked with James Gunn on The Suicide Squad of 2021 but that then suggested being exhausted and not being very clear about her return. However, shortly after Gunn and Safran’s new position became known, coinciding with the premiere of Babylon, Robbie was delighted by her peers’ opportunity and admitted to Entertainment Tonight to be ready for more Harleys if the opportunity arose:
I’ve had enough rest. I’m ready to do it again. I did Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad back-to-back, so that was a lot of Harley in a year’s time, but it was a long time ago. I’m always ready for more Harley!
The James Gunn tape was the Third time that Robbie got into the skin of what is undoubtedly one of his most iconic characters. She debuted in DC and captivated as Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad by David Ayer from 2016, although it would take four more years to do it again. Her second chance was also a very special project for her, since fIt was Robbie herself who acted as producer and presented the idea of Birds of prey to Warner Bros. in 2015.
A film that would be released under the title AYou See as Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn) in 2020, but which was announced for the first time in 2016, a few months before the tape of what would be both a sequel and a ‘spin-off’.
The tape followed in the footsteps of Harley Quinn after the break with the Joker and in a new adventure in which she allied herself with three other superheroines, but, despite having quickly won her solo project, for Robbie it wasn’t exactly getting the movie off the ground. Now, more than two years after its debut and its commented departure from the HBO Max catalog, the feature film has just entered the Netflix catalog, where it is available from today, February 1although we can also see it on Amazon Prime Video.
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Since he convinced Warner, Robbie spent three years coming up with the version of Birds of prey that with which the producer agreed to carry out. In 2018 they signed the director Cathy Yan and later, after some important changes in the final script, they began to sign the rest of the cast that would accompany the actress and producer, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary. Also Ewan McGregor as the villain Black Mask.
After filming in 2019, Birds of Prey (and the fantastic emancipation of Harley Quinn) premiered in 2020 and, although the reviews were pretty good overall, the film was considered a flop. The film needed to gross between $250 million and $300 million worldwide to break even, but it barely broke $200 million. A fact much lamented by the team and also made worse by the R rating in the United States and due to the Covid crisis that was then experienced in Asia. At the level of spectators, Birds of prey it was an underrated film despite the majority praise.
“There were also undue expectations for a film starring a woman, and what disappoints me the most is this idea that maybe what it shows is that we weren’t ready for this yet,” its creator would reflect.
Birds of Prey (and the fantastic emancipation of Harley Quinn) is now available on Netflix.
