Warner Bros.’ all-female Batman spinoff Birds of Prey has been fast-tracked through development, with the studio eager to get another film with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn into cinemas (Joker and Harley Quinn is a long way off yet). Now, with casting rumors flying in thick and fast and Cathy Yan attached to direct, we finally have a release date for the pic: February 7th, 2020.
That’s obviously a long time away, but it does indicate that pre-production and casting will be finalized over the months leading up to Christmas, with the shoot beginning sometime in early 2019. Though Harley Quinn will play a big role, the ‘official’ heroes will be Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya (perhaps in her guise as The Question). The plot, meanwhile, will concern the aftermath of Harley breaking up with the Joker and will feature the three heroines teaming up to save a little girl named Cassandra Cain from an evil crime lord.
That last name will have Bat-fans’ ears twitching, as it’s the name of one of the more recent Batgirls, an expert martial artist trained from birth to be the world’s greatest assassin. This involved her being deprived of speech and human contact during her childhood, rendering her mute and illiterate yet able to kick an unnerving amount of ass. As for the evil crime lord, that’s probably going to be Black Mask, thus giving all the women in the film a suitably despicable person to beat up.
One major figure still notable by his absence from the DC release schedule is, of course, Batman. We have two spinoff films for the Joker coming out, a Nightwing movie on the cards (though that’s gone very quiet lately) and now Birds of Prey. So, where’s the Batman? Well, I assume he’s at home, washing his tights. Or at least, drying them out.