'John Wick' Filmmaker Chad Stahelski To Oversee New Action Scenes For 'Birds Of Prey' Reshoots

A funny thing happened on the way to everyone trying to own a piece of the “Birds Of Prey” reshoot narrative yesterday. A disliked blogger, rather Fox News-like in their approach tried to say Warner Bros.’ “Birds Of Prey” was facing major reshoots (though didn’t frame them negatively). The Internet, disliking this blogger, and disliking that narrative, shouted in opposition, nothing to see here, this is false, everything is absolutely totally fine. The reality?

READ MORE: Margot Robbie Explains Tarantino Influence On ‘Birds Of Prey’ & How She Got Permission For One Specific ‘Pulp Fiction’ Reference

At the very least, it’s not that simple. Today, in the aftermath of this noisy back and worth war on social media, the Hollywood Reporter reports that something is indeed up on “Birds of Prey” and action filmmaker Chad Stahelski (all the “John Wick” films) has been brought on board to oversee second-unit photography and action scenes to make the film truly sing. According to THR, Stahelski is taking “an uncredited role to design and work on additional action scenes” for the movie.

READ MORE: Margot Robbie Says ‘Birds Of Prey’ Is “Definitely Less Male Gaze-y” Than ‘Suicide Squad’

Does that mean the film’s in trouble? No, but it at least essentially means the action scenes thus far haven’t been cutting it, or could be greatly improved, and Stahelski has been brought on to help the movie kick more ass. His stunt firm company 87 Eleven, had been working on the movie since production began and presumably they had some conversations with him about what was and wasn’t working.

READ MORE: Mary Elizabeth Winstead Calls ‘Birds Of Prey’ “Funny And Weird” & Says It Reminds Her Of A ’90s Film

The optics aren’t great either. A man, known for his muscular action films is brought in to oversee the action directed by a young female filmmaker with little to no action or tentpole filmmaking experience (Cathy Yan, known for the indie “Dead Pigs”).

READ MORE: Margot Robbie Loves “Batsh-t Crazy” ‘Birds Of Prey’ Title & Gal Gadot Talks ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ At DC Films Presentation

Hopefully this isn’t a “Big Little Lies” situation—filmmaker Andrea Arnold rumored to be pushed off the series a little bit by its executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée—but honestly, it doesn’t look great from the outside.

READ MORE: The DC Films Universe: All The Movies Coming Soon & In Development

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” stars Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, and Ewan McGregor. It is a “Suicide Squad” film spin-off that, as its title suggests, puts Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn character, front and center and orbited by a new team of female heroes and villains. The movie is scheduled by Warner Bros. for a February 7, 2020 release. More when it arrives.