‘Birds of Prey’ Virtually Featured One other DC Chicken: The Penguin

Earlier than Colin Farrell turned the Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the character nearly had a unique origin story within the DC Universe. In keeping with star and producer Margot Robbie, early variations of the script for her Harley Quinn vehicle Birds of Prey, featured the enduring Batman villain as the principle antagonist, however then somebody stepped in and requested that to not occur.

“Matt Reeves mentioned, ‘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, in fact, 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 position, one which has since gotten much more essential because of 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 a complete lot completely different. Plus, then we acquired Ewan McGregor in a DC film as Black Masks. A factor that really occurred.

What’s nearly most enjoyable about this piece of trivia, although, is that Farrell has no thought about it. Throughout that EW interview for his or her new film, A Large Daring Stunning 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, but it surely’s enjoyable nonetheless. Farrell additionally requested Robbie about Hodson’s iteration of the character, and he or she known 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 could, or could not, develop into Harley Quinn once more, that’s as much as DC Studios President James Gunn. And he isn’t speaking about it.

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