There are a couple things Warner Bros. knows about their current slate of DC Comics movies: 1) No one really liked “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” which has yet to clear $900 million worldwide, even though “Captain America: Civil War” will likely hit $1 billion in less time and 2) Everybody is already in love with Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn in “Suicide Squad.” So, the thinking at WB logically follows: “What if we made a movie around her?”
Well, that’s what they’re going to do. The studio is in development on a Harley Quinn spinoff, that won’t just feature Robbie’s character, but other female heroes and villains from the comics, potentially including Batgirl and Birds Of Prey.
At first glance, this sounds like a vote of confidence from WB, and a good play to diversify a slate that already includes “Wonder Woman.” However, can Harley Quinn sustain a movie? Is WB just repeating the same mistake they did with ‘Dawn Of Justice,’ cramming a bunch of characters into a movie and hoping it’ll pay off? And while Harley Quinn may be enjoyable in “Suicide Squad,” can she sustain her own movie? It’s worth remembering that Kevin Feige at Marvel has been resistant to calls for Hulk and Black Widow to lead their own movies for a variety of reasons, the key being, waiting for the right story to be told. And you can bet a future “Black Widow” picture will be far more satisfying and have richer themes to work with down the line, as the MCU timelines keep unfolding, than if it had just been cranked out to meed demand.
All that said, this is apparently the brainchild of Robbie herself, who hired a female writer (who has not been named yet) to start putting pen to paper, and then approached WB the idea. Clearly, they liked it.
A couple of months back it was rumored that WB was also working on a sequel to “Suicide Squad,” which I presume is still happening, with this spinoff also in the mix too. But where on WB’s DC slate will it go? They’re already plotted out to 2020 with solo movies galore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them (ahem, “Cyborg“) started falling by the wayside. [THR]