Margot Robbie teased some new nuggets Friday about her upcoming film “Birds of Prey,” calling the “Suicide Squad” spinoff an “R-rated girl gang film.”
“She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang,” Robbie told the website Collider. “I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it.”
“Birds of Prey,” which Robbie is set to produce and reprise the role of Harley Quinn, is centered around a revolving door of female heroes and villains. But girl power won’t just be spotlighted in front of the cameras; Robbie has made it a priority to put them in key positions behind the scenes as well.
To that end, Christina Hodson was tapped as screenwriter and Cathy Yan was signed on as the first Asian woman to direct a DC film.
“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’… I was like, ‘I love action. I love action films. I’m a girl. What, are we meant to only like a specific thing’?” Robbie told Collider.
“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.”
Over the course of the next few years, the studio explored other Harley Quinn spinoffs, but Robbie said she wasn’t a part of those versions.
“I was always focused on this one with Christina,” she said. “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.”
In an interview Yahoo Movies, Robbie said the film will try and cast a diverse selection of female talent.
Though “Suicide Squad” was a critical flop, Robbie’s performance as Joker girlfriend Harley Quinn, has become something of a cult standout.
Huntress, Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Catwoman, Vixen, Power Girl, andPoison Ivy are all contenders for inclusion in “Birds of Prey” according to Yahoo.