‘Birds of Prey’ Almost Featured Another DC Bird: The Penguin

Before Colin Farrell became the Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the character almost had a different origin story in the DC Universe. According to star and producer Margot Robbie, early versions of the script for her Harley Quinn vehicle Birds of Prey, featured the iconic Batman villain as the main antagonist, but then someone stepped in and asked that not to happen.

“Matt Reeves said, ‘Don’t use the Penguin. I’m going to use him in my thing,’” Robbie explained to Farrell in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “And so we swapped it to Black Mask.”

Reeves, of course, is the writer and director of The Batman, which was released two years after Birds of Prey. His film features Penguin in a rather important role, one that has since gotten even more important thanks to the award-winning HBO spinoff show. So, had Reeves not asked for the character to be taken out of Birds of Prey, the whole scope of the DC Universe and Warner Bros. Discovery’s awards prospects would look a whole lot different. Plus, then we got Ewan McGregor in a DC movie as Black Mask. A thing that actually happened.

What’s almost most fun about this piece of trivia, though, is that Farrell has no idea about it. During that EW interview for their new movie, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Robbie mentioned that she and Farrell had never discussed their respective DC roles before revealing that Penguin was in writer Christina Hodson’s early drafts of Birds of Prey. Farrell was shocked by this and asked Robbie to send him that version of the script if she had it. We don’t know if that has since happened, but it’s fun nevertheless. Farrell also asked Robbie about Hodson’s iteration of the character, and she called him “amazing.” Probably not 24 Emmy nominations “amazing,” but still.

We’ll next see Farrell’s Penguin in The Batman Part II, scheduled for release in October 2027. As for when Robbie may, or may not, become Harley Quinn again, that’s up to DC Studios President James Gunn. And he isn’t talking about it.

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