Exclusive: Birds Of Prey 2 Is Now Dead At Warner Bros.
Birds of Prey 2 is now completely cancelled at Warner Bros.
This article is more than 2 years old
The Birds of Prey ending is pretty self-explanatory, so the biggest question for all parties is: what’s next? Is there room for Birds of Prey 2?
We’ve heard from one of our proven sources, one of the same sources that made us the first outlet to break the news that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is happening, that Birds of Prey 2 is now completely cancelled at Warner Bros.
There had been plans in the works to make Birds of Prey 2, but they’ve reportedly been scrapped and everyone has moved on. Our source tells us, “Warners no longer believes in the concept or in the creative team behind the movie.”
This probably explains why both Birds of Prey star Margot Robbie and writer Christina Hodson have moved on to another franchise at a totally different movie studio. The pair were recently announced to be reuniting at Disney for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Our Exclusive Confirmed
UPDATE: Adding more fuel to the fire we started with our initial exclusive about Birds of Prey 2 above (first reported on July 2, 2020) is this additional news item from proven scooper Grace Randolph. Randolph says WB has Harley Quinn on hold after the original Birds of Prey did poorly at the box office. She further seems to agree that Margot Robbie is no longer really in charge of what happens to the character in the future.
Why Birds Of Prey 2 Isn’t Happening
Unfortunately Birds of Prey failed and failed hard at the box office, recording the worst opening of any DC Comics superhero movie so far. In the wake of that failure word is that Warner Bros. Studios is already discussing diminishing Harley Quinn’s role in the future of the DC Universe. That was never good news for the potential of Birds of Prey 2.
Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was expected be the lead in The Suicide Squad, since she just had a solo movie (sort of) in Birds of Prey and she’s easily the breakout character from the original Suicide Squad movie. Now she may not even be the lead in that movie, let alone the lead in a Birds of Prey 2.
DC had been hoping the draw of the character and of Margot Robbie would earn Birds of Prey at least a $55 million opening stateside but instead they barely got to $33 million. The movie will still make a profit thanks to international box office, but then almost everything Hollywood produces is able to make a profit thanks to international box office. For Warner Bros. Birds of Prey’s meager box office take was not enough to justify continuing on a path towards Birds of Prey 2, when that path has given the studio its least successful movie to date.
What Birds Of Prey 2 Could Have Been
Harley Quinn was supposed to have a biggest, busiest future after the Birds of Prey ending. Black Mask and Zsasz are dead(ish), but that’s only one threat neutralized. As Birds of Prey shows, she’s made plenty of other enemies along the way, many of whom have a bone to pick with the therapist-turned-outlaw. One of these looms larger than all the others, however.
Though she publicly breaks up with him by blowing up the ACE Chemicals plant, Joker is still very much alive and out there. She’s was supposed to have to deal with that eventually, and DC already announced a Joker/Harley Quinn movie that was supposed to happen. It’s likely the some suits over at Warner Bros are cancelling that project too, along with Birds of Prey 2.
DC also had a Gotham City Sirens movie in the works. Announced shortly after Suicide Squad, it would have seen Harley team up with fellow female outlaws Catwoman and Poison Ivy. That’s reportedly already on hold, but Robbie has said she’d like to see Harley team up with Poison Ivy, so you never know. It depends on if it’s just the creative team that would have made Birds of Prey 2 which WB has lost confidence in, or that they’ve lost confidence in Margot Robbie too.
The Good News
That said, even with Birds of Prey 2 cancelled, the Birds of Prey now exist in the DC universe. That’s a key. The movie left them well on their way to becoming a force to be reckoned with. With no shortage of baddies on the streets of Gotham, they’re sure to have a full dance card, and it would be easy to have them pop up down the road in the laundry list of connected films in the works. But given the box office do not expect to see more from Renee Montoya, Huntress, and Black Canary.
Cassandra Cain is a bit of a different question. In the comics, Bruce Wayne takes her under his wing, and she becomes Batgirl—she’s also had a number of other aliases. This tinkers with the formula somewhat. Instead of being Batman’s protégé, she now studies under the tutelage of Harley Quinn, a different education for sure. At least for the time being. It will be interesting to see how that develops. Will she become Batgirl or one of her other characters, does she ever hook up with Batman, or will she take a different path in this continuity? We’ll have to wait and see if WB does anything with it now that Birds of Prey 2 is dead.
