‘Birds of Prey’ Nearly Featured One other DC Chook: The Penguin

Earlier than Colin Farrell grew to become the Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the character virtually had a special origin story within the DC Universe. In response to star and producer Margot Robbie, early variations of the script for her Harley Quinn vehicle Birds of Prey, featured the long-lasting Batman villain as the primary antagonist, however then somebody stepped in and requested that to not occur.

“Matt Reeves stated, ‘Don’t use the Penguin. I’m going to make use of him in my factor,’” Robbie defined to Farrell in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “And so we swapped it to Black Masks.”

Reeves, after all, is the writer and director of The Batman, which was launched two years after Birds of Prey. His movie options Penguin in a relatively essential function, one which has since gotten much more essential due to the award-winning HBO spinoff present. So, had Reeves not requested for the character to be taken out of Birds of Prey, the entire scope of the DC Universe and Warner Bros. Discovery’s awards prospects would look an entire lot completely different. Plus, then we bought Ewan McGregor in a DC film as Black Masks. A factor that truly occurred.

What’s virtually most enjoyable about this piece of trivia, although, is that Farrell has no concept about it. Throughout that EW interview for his or her new film, A Huge Daring Lovely Journey, Robbie talked about that she and Farrell had by no means mentioned their respective DC roles earlier than revealing that Penguin was in author Christina Hodson’s early drafts of Birds of Prey. Farrell was shocked by this and requested Robbie to ship him that model of the script if she had it. We don’t know if that has since occurred, nevertheless it’s enjoyable nonetheless. Farrell additionally requested Robbie about Hodson’s iteration of the character, and he or she referred to as him “superb.” Most likely not 24 Emmy nominations “superb,” however nonetheless.

We’ll subsequent see Farrell’s Penguin in The Batman Half II, scheduled for launch in October 2027. As for when Robbie might, or might not, turn out to be Harley Quinn once more, that’s as much as DC Studios President James Gunn. And he isn’t speaking about it.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and the whole lot it’s good to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.