Birds Of Prey's wacky new title is confirmation that it's really a Harley Quinn movie

By Sam Barsanti  |  November 20, 2018 | 11:19pm
Aux Features Film

Two years ago, we learned that the plan to make a Harley Quinn-centric spin-off of Suicide Squad with Margot Robbie had evolved into a full-on, female-centric superhero team-up movie based on DC’s Birds Of Prey. Since then, other cast details have gradually come in, including the news that the movie would feature Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, both longtime members of the Birds Of Prey in the comics, with Ewan McGregor recently signing on to play Batman villain Black Mask. Now, Warner Bros. has revealed the full title of the Birds Of Prey movie, and it makes it sound like this really will be the Harley Quinn movie it was initially pitched as a few years ago.

As announced on Twitter and confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, the full title is—deep breath—Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn). Yes, part of the title is in parentheses, which The Hollywood Reporter is interpreting as a Birdman reference. We don’t know if that’s the case, but we do appreciate the silliness of the gag (while selfishly dreading how often we’re going to have to type out that full name as we continue to report on this movie).

Funniness aside, putting Harley Quinn’s name in the title is an indication that she’s going to be more of the star here than any individual Bird Of Prey, while simultaneously acknowledging that she’ll be working with a larger team in order to take down Black Mask. It’s also good branding, since Warner Bros. can now put the name of one of its most popular comic book characters on the poster. Really, the only bad part about this is how much we’re going to grumble about the title when we type it out again in the next line.

Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) will be directed by Cathy Yan, and it’ll be in theaters in 2020.

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