James Gunn Didn't Know About Birds of Prey While Writing The Suicide Squad
James Gunn, director of the newly released DCEU film The Suicide Squad, has just revealed that he was unaware of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) while writing. Birds of Prey was released at the beginning of 2020 and followed Margot Robbie's Harley as she navigated a post-Joker life. The film takes place four years after the events of 2016's Suicide Squad and sees Jared Leto's Joker break up with Harley. Now, Robbie is back in Gunn's The Suicide Squad, a hybrid sequel-reboot of the 2016 film.
Gunn's film follows a new iteration of Task Force X, all of whom have once again been recruited by Viola Davis' Amanda Waller to go on a mission that will most likely end in their deaths. Landing on the island of Corto Maltese, Task Force X has to deal with the military regime while bringing an end to the mysterious Project Starfish. This time around, returning members Harley, Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) are joined by an expansive group of crazy new team members. This includes King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Peacemaker (John Cena), and Bloodsport (Idris Elba). Another major difference from the previous film was its R-rating, which allowed Gunn to let loose and give viewers a violent and profanity-filled Suicide Squad film that understood the source material.
Now, James Gunn has talked about being unaware of Birds of Prey while writing The Suicide Squad. In an interview with Variety, Gunn discusses many aspects of the film, including Birds of Prey. While the director was writing the screenplay for The Suicide Squad, he was unaware of the Harley Quinn film until very late in the process. Still, he knew that her past relationship with Joker would be vital to her storyline in his film. Check out his quote here:
To be completely honest, I didn’t even know about the Harley movie when I was writing the screenplay. I found out about that awful late in the process. But I knew that, no matter which way you look at it, Harley has a past relationship with the Joker. So I needed her to be coming out of that in a certain way, and I needed her to make a healthy choice — healthy from her perspective — about where she’s going in her life and not being dependent on men.
It's clear that Gunn understands Harley Quinn's character even without knowing what would be happening in Birds of Prey. Knowing that he wanted Harley to be in in his film allowed her to have a natural progression from the previous entry in the DCEU that made sense. Giving Harley an arc where it was clear that she did not want to go through what she did with Joker made sense, especially given the journey her character went on in Birds of Prey. This allowed Gunn to show her making healthy choices for herself (even if they resulted in murder).
While Gunn was not aware of Birds of Prey at the time of writing The Suicide Squad, he still managed to give audiences another great depiction of Robbie's Harley Quinn. He understood the place that the character was in during his film and gave her a story that continued on from Birds of Prey. Where Harley will head next is unclear, but her journey in the DCEU is not yet over. The Suicide Squad is currently in theaters and available to stream for HBO Max subscribers until September 5.
Source: Variety