There’s A Reason Margot Robbie Prioritised Birds Of Prey Over Gotham City Sirens

There’s A Reason Margot Robbie Prioritised Birds Of Prey Over Gotham City Sirens

Margot Robbie is one of the most fascinating things about the past decade of superhero movies. She made a name for herself by making Harley Quinn her own, and then subsequently teased the public with hints and proclamations about where her incarnation of the DC character was going to show up on the big screen next.

Though there was originally buzz about Harley being the centre of a Gotham City Sirens feature, Warner Bros. and Robbie’s production outfit LuckyChap decided to move forward with a Birds of Prey movie instead. In addition to the film featuring a whole lot of Harley, it’s meant to introduce a number of classic DC characters to the studio’s haphazard cinematic universe.

It’s easy to understand why fans wanted a Sirens film that would have likely brought Catwoman (now making an appearance in another film) and Poison Ivy into the cinematic fold, while also giving Harley something to do that didn’t involve the Joker. But in a recent interview with Nerdist, Robbie explained she ultimately chose to focus on Birds of Prey specifically because of the broader focus that the comics team traditionally has.

“Whilst I was researching the character I started to read Birds of Prey and first I fell in love with Huntress, and I started looking into all of that. I was like, ‘Wow, there’s so many cool female DC characters and no one knows anything about any of them!’ So what if we had a platform for fans to get to know and fall in love with some of these other amazing women,” Robbie said. “Focusing on the Gotham City Sirens, there were only three of us and we were all well known, whereas with Birds of Prey you can pick any grouping for that, and I thought that might be the perfect platform to introduce some female characters who might really have some legs in the DC universe.”

While the Birds of Prey aren’t exactly the Super Friends in terms of their membership, Robbie has a point and she’s making clear that she’s interested in using her status as the studio’s Harley Quinn to productive ends. One can safely assume that given enough time, villains like Pamela Isley and Selina Kyle are going to make it to the big screen (again) on their own steam because they, like Harleen, are iconic in their own right.

Nerds love the Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain, but it’s not often that characters like them are positioned at the front and centre of a story like the one Birds of Prey is meant to tell. By focusing on this group, Robbie and Warner Bros. are highlighting characters that might not otherwise be given their due on the big screen—and in the grand scheme of things, it’s likely going to lead to WB’s cinematic universe being a much more interesting place.