Warner Bros has had Birds of Prey circling around its DC slate for some time now, and now it's set a landing date: February 7th, 2020.
For those catching up with the nonstop onslaught of DC movie news, Birds of Prey will team Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, also producing) with a team of female heroes including Black Canary, Huntress, and Gotham police detective Renee Montoya. Together, they'll take on crime lord Black Mask, a Batman villain known for his sadism and in some versions of the character, mind control. Sundance prizewinner Cathy Yan will direct, from a script by Christina Hodson, whose Bumblebee opens this December (and looks great).
As for casting, little is known other than the fact that Robbie will reprise her role from Suicide Squad. Rumours have put Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Janelle Monae, Black Mirror's Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Cristin Milioti, The Leftovers' Margaret Qualley, Underground's Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and One Day At A Time's Justina Machado in the running for roles, but no decisions have been made public yet. Whatever the results of the casting process, it's clear WB is gunning for a diverse cast - which is great!
Curiously, the February date places Birds of Prey into release a week before Cary Fukunaga's Bond 25 - an intriguing move that could split audiences down gender lines once the films' releases intersect. Birds of Prey doesn't have the mainstream character identifiability of fellow female-led DC title Wonder Woman, but if there was one thing people loved about Suicide Squad, it was Robbie's Harley Quinn. Of course, it's unlikely that toxic male DC fans - like those who chased former DC president Diane Nelson off Twitter today for daring to not grovel at Zack Snyder's feet - will make a dent in the movie's box office.
Again: Birds of Prey hits cinemas February 7th, 2020. As far as we know, it does not have the Joker in it, but at this point in the DC news cycle, we're unsure if WB is even capable of making a movie without that character appearing in some fashion.