Margot Robbie has been very chatty when it comes to the direction of Harley Quinn, more so than any other member of the Suicide Squad cast. You don’t see Joel Kinnaman out there talking about all those Rick Flag spinoffs Warner Bros. should be working on, do you? No, it’s clear that Robbie has been granted a ton of control over the character’s future, probably for two reasons. First, is that Harley is arguably the most popular DCEU character other than Wonder Woman. Two, Robbie has grown to become quite a powerful producer, as well.
Robbie is out there doing press for her new movie, the film noir Terminal, and of course the Collider interviewer really just wants to ask her about Harley Quinn. Robbie talked about the upcoming all-girl spinoff, Birds of Prey, and says she pitched it to Warner Bros. as an R-rated gang movie.
“I pitched the idea of an R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don’t ever make her do a standalone film. She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang. I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it.”
Robbie goes on to talk about her other motivations in doing this particular movie, and that included hiring a female director. As we know, it will be Cathy Yan behind the camera working from a script by red-hot screenwriter Christina Hodson, who is also working on the Batgirl movie…
“And then of course having a female director to tell that story. And giving a female director the chance to do big budget stuff. They always get ‘Here’s the tiny little film’…So it was a hugely important to find a female director for this, if possible. But at the end of the day — male, female — the best director gets the job and Cathy was the best director.”
As for all of those other Harley Quinn movies that seemed to pop up out of the woodwork, like that Harley vs. Joker films, Gotham City Sirens, and others? Robbie tells Moviefone she has nothing to do with them, which only serves to make the DCEU look even more screwed up than before…
“I know that they were exploring ‘Gotham City Sirens’ with David Ayer, and I know they were exploring a Joker and Harley Quinn movie, and they were exploring doing I don’t know what else. I wasn’t a part of those. I was focusing on this. I kept presenting it to the studio until they felt it was at a point where they were ready to do it. And now we’re all in.”
Last we heard, Gotham City Sirens had Suicide Squad director David Ayer attached, so it would be really weird if Robbie wasn’t in it. I can’t believe any of these projects are going to happen without her. And if they do then Warner Bros. is cutting their own throat once again. Why can’t they just keep it simple? The people like Robbie in the role, so focus on that and do away with all of the clutter.
