After debuting in 2016’s Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn (whose DCU future has but to be clarified) returned 4 years later for Birds of Prey, this time accompanied by the likes of Huntress, Black Canary and Cassandra Cain. The heroines clashed with Gotham Metropolis crime lord Roman Sionis, a.okay.a. Black Masks, whom I believed Ewan McGregor did an important (and typically hilarious) job taking part in. Nevertheless, it seems that initially Harley and her gal buddies have been initially speculated to be antagonized by a distinct, and admittedly extra well-known Batman villain: Oswald Cobblepot, a.okay.a. The Penguin.
Robbie herself revealed this to Colin Farrell, her costar within the forthcoming 2025 film launch A Large Daring Stunning Journey. Farrell, after all, performed The Penguin in 2022’s The Batman, then reprised the function final 12 months for the character’s self-titled HBO miniseries, which netted him a nomination on the 2025 Emmy Awards airing subsequent month. It was really Penguin’s inclusion in The Batman that prevented Birds of Prey from utilizing him, with Robbie recalling:
The primary draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of Birds of Prey, the villain was the Penguin… After which [director/writer] Matt Reeves mentioned, ‘Do not use the Penguin. I will use him in my factor,'” Robbie defined. “And so we swapped it to Black Masks [played by Ewan McGregor].
Colin Farrell was stunned when Margot Robbie introduced this up throughout an interview with EW, prompting him to ask how Christina Hodson did writing Penguin in Birds of Prey. Robbie mentioned this tackle the character was “wonderful,” however didn’t disclose any particular particulars. Nevertheless, the Barbie actress and government producer nonetheless has a replica of that earlier script and informed Farrell she’d ship it to him. So he’ll be one of many few individuals to get a peek at what might have been on this nook DC Prolonged Universe.
There’s a actuality the place Birds of Prey wouldn’t have been ready to make use of The Penguin with none points. That’s as a result of earlier than The Batman turned a non-DCEU film starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, it was meant to highlight Ben Affleck’s model of the Caped Crusader following his appearances in Batman v Superman: Daybreak of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League. That incarnation of The Batman would have featured Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke as the principle villain, leaving Birds of Prey to make the most of The Penguin unimpeded.
That plan went out the proverbial window as soon as Affleck exited the challenge and Matt Reeves got here aboard to reboot Batman as soon as once more, leaving Black Masks to take Penguin’s place. As a lot as I might have appreciated to have seen what the DCEU’s Oswald Cobblepot seemed like, I believe it was for one of the best that we received Black Masks in Birds of Prey as an alternative. Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis match effectively with the vibe of the Cathy Yan-directed film, and this allowed for one more Batman villain to seem of their first live-action film, whereas Penguin had already been performed by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns.
Stream Birds of Prey with an HBO Max subscription in case you’re now within the temper to revisit the antics of McGregor’s Black Masks. Catch Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell collectively in A Large Daring Stunning Journey beginning on September 19, and anticipate Colin Farrell to step again into The Penguin’s footwear when The Batman: Half II is launched on October 1, 2027.