Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn impressed a lot of people even if Suicide Squad itself failed to hit the mark most fans expected. Warner Bros. was already moving ahead with the actor/producer on a Harley spin-off which was said to feature other women from the DC Comics universe. Now, via The Hollywood Reporter, we know she’ll be joined by villains to create Gotham City Sirens.
The film is being produced under Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap Entertainment (Terminal, I, Tonya). The last news we had on the Harley Quinn front was that writer Christina Hodson was rumored to be attached. Other than that we’ve only been guessing on which characters would be involved. Though Batgirl and the Birds of Prey had been thrown around, Harley has a past in the comics with the two other villains from Batman’s Rogues Gallery — Poison Ivy and Catwoman. Gotham City Sirens became an actual series featuring the adventures of the trio in 2009 from Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini and artist Guillem March. It’s maybe safe to assume those two would have to be involved with a title like that.
The Hollywood Reporter doesn’t give specifics on that end but does say Suicide Squad’s director David Ayer will be re-teaming with Robbie for Gotham City Sirens, with DC Entertainment president and chief creative officer Geoff Johns and Jon Berg also producing. The trade adds that Geneva Robertson-Dworet will be writing the script. She’s currently already working with Warner Bros. on Sherlock Holmes 3 and Tomb Raider starring Alicia Vikander (she also had a script on last year’s Black List).
Dini has spoken highly of Robbie’s portrayal in the past and said he has high hopes for where she’ll take the character from here and honestly, I’m so excited about the potential here. Poison Ivy and Catwoman have both been brought to life on the big screen before — Ivy was played by Uma Thurman in 1997’s Batman & Robin while Catwoman has been played by Michelle Pfeiffer (in Batman Returns), Halle Berry (in Catwoman), and Anne Hathaway (in The Dark Knight Rises) — so I’m interested to see who they’ll cast alongside Robbie.
We’re not sure what’s going on with release dates at this point but just this week we found out Warner Bros. would be pushing back the Justice League sequel to make room for Ben Affleck’s The Batman. Though Affleck himself just said he’s in no mood to rush that project out for the sake of keeping up with set dates (they were looking at summer 2019). “I’m a real believer in not reverse-engineering projects to meet a window or a date,” he said. “But rather when you get the right idea, when you get the right story, you get the right thing, then you make the movie.” Of Gotham City Sirens THR notes “the project is now on the fast-track.”
I’m excited/relieved they hired a female screenwriter for this one. While I totally understand why they decided to go with Ayer to direct this project, I can’t say I’m not a bit bummed they didn’t find a female director to tell this heavily female-focused story (Gal Gadot has said in the past that was important for Wonder Woman). I have a feeling Rachel Talalay or Lexi Alexander, who have both worked with DC Entertainment on the small screen, could have done a fantastic job.
