Birds of Prey was not meant to refer to the DCEU

Despite being under the aegis of DCEU,Birds of prey (and the fantastic emancipation of a Harley Quinn)was not meant to refer to the DCEU, according to director Cathy Yan. After a series of successful projects related to DC, such asAquaman,Shazam!, andJoker, Warner Bros. expected to continue its momentum with the return of Margot Robbies as Harley Quinn Birds of prey. Unfortunately, since its theatrical release in February, the film has struggled to attract audiences, resulting in the lowest DC box office opening in a decade, and most recently, finishing fourth in rental / sales streaming. However, a bright light for Yans’ female team is that the critical and public appreciation has been much greater than the previous release of Robbies DC,Suicide Squad.

UpstreamBirds of preytheatrical release, a big question was how much it had to do with criticsSuicide Squadand the rest of the DCEU. Producer Sue Kroll even distanced the film Yans fromSuicide Squad, when she said to Screen Rant during a visitBirds of preyEasta stand-alone movie, it’s not related to Suicide Squad. It is not a sequel.While The story of Yans Harley Quinn is really his own movie, focusing on Quinn and the new characters, he has surprisingly a lot of references not onlySuicide Squad, but other DCEU characters. A glimpse of the Jared Leto-inspired Joker can be seen inBopbecause the break up with Joker is a big motivation for Harleys’ first actions in history, and there is even a mention of thatdude Wayne Wayne aka Batman.

Related: Birds Of Prey Is Nothing Like Other Superhero Movies (And It’s Awesome)

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cathy Yan discussedBirds of preyconnection with the DCEU after being asked if the studio had requested that the film be linked to DC Extended Universe. Yan went into detail on how they approached Birds of Prey’s connections with earlier films, such as Suicide Squad, explaining how the decision stems from Harley’s character more than anything.

Yes and no. They were pretty supportive and offensive when it came to connecting it to this movie, the next movie or something like that … I also thought it would be very shocking to see Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie, in a completely different look. So we kept her tattoos, but we also tampered with them and based on the character and what she was going through. The J became the mermaid, and the pudding was turned into pudding cups. We kept her hair and we thought: What if she doesn’t take care of it too? What if it grew a little?

In terms of costumes, it was a transition very much based on the character of what she would wear when she was with the Joker and then what she would wear when she was alone and make those decisions for herself. I really loved the appearance of the weapons, so we kept the bat and mallet pretty much as is. I think we actually made the mallet a little bit smaller so it was easier for her to hit people with it. So, we did what we could with it, and there is obviously this little tribute like Hey, I know this guy! [to Jai Courtneys Captain Boomerang] as well as. So we definitely tried to spice it up, and it wasn’t just Suicide Squad.

When the DCEU started in 2013 withSteel man, he seemed determined to copy the Marvel formula of a universe. However, after seeing less than flattering results, the studio has apparently been more willing to allow directors to create strong, self-contained stories. This is evident here in Yans’ response to whether she was pressured from the studio to link the DCEU to the story. The director was able to make the linkBirds of preyatSuicide Squadand the rest of the extended universe in a way that matches his ironic humor, but which also led to logically inspiring the narration of his films.

Furthermore, Yan’s level of detail on how and why she incorporated specific references to the DCEU is admirable and testifies to what the narrative surrounding Birds of prey should be – that this is a clever, witty and strong comic book movie. Unfortunately, due to the failure of Warner Bros. in the marketing department and confusing title changes during his theatrical release, his disappointing financial tale has apparently overshadowed which is a solid addition to the DCEU. However, given the quality Birds of prey and the success the studio has enjoyed elsewhere, the forced connection to the DCEU will hopefully continue to be a thing of the past for future projects.

Next: Suicide Squad images reused in Birds of Prey

Source: THR

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