Scripts can go through several rounds of edits before it’s actually turned into a film, and considering that Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) was in development for five years, a lot certainly changed in that time. But despite the long development, screenwriter Christina Hodson, whose most recent project to grace the silver screen was 2018’s Bumblebee, was there shepherding the story alongside Margot Robbie the entire time. Screen Rant recently caught up with Hodson at a Birds of Prey event in Hollywood, and here’s what she had to say - as part of a group interview - about the new DC Comics movie.

This is one of the first mainstream superhero movies to not only have a female voice but a female voice of color, with you and Cathy [Yan] behind it. What was that like for you and how did you infuse all of that into the script that you wrote?

Which comic books were you reading in preparation for this movie?

Mostly, it’s just a huge honor, honestly. But it’s exciting and it’s about time, as I’m sure you’d agree. How do I infuse it into the script? It’s who I am. It just comes out on the page, that’s how it goes. But I hope it’s just in there kind of naturally and organically. Yeah, huge honor.

Switching genres - between this and Bumblebee - is there a difference? Or you’re just, “I can do this”?

Oh, I mean I kind of ran the gamut. Margot [Robbie] and I very, very early in the process - so about four-and-a-half years ago - we went into the DC library and just took, like, stacks of comics home. She had obviously already done a huge amount of research on Harley for Suicide Squad, and we just went on a deep dive on Birds of Prey. My personal favorites - and I shouldn’t pick favorites because they’re all my babies - but I love the early Chuck Dixon Birds of Prey stuff. Vengeance Unlimited, A.J. Lieberman, I think is beautiful. Behind Blue Eyes and that are my favorite, probably. Then you’ll see pieces of that in the movie. But yeah, I mean I’m such a fan. [Amanda] Conner and [Jimmy] Palmiotti have done all sorts of things in the New 52 - I just, I’m a big fan. So I like it all.

You said you’ve been doing this for four-and-a-half years now - how much as changed in that time period?

Yeah, weirdly, Harley feels like she’s part of my soul now. Writing Harley has always just felt fun in that role. Working with Margot so closely, from so early on, made it such a pleasure. And I shouldn’t say easy because nothing about writing movies is easy, but when you’re doing it with her, it kind of is, because I just got to know [Harley] so well. It felt very natural; we always knew what she would do, what she wouldn’t do. Who she would kill, who she wouldn’t kill. So yeah, it was fun.

So what characters were cut in that process, people you wanted to bring but just couldn’t?

I was just saying this to them, weirdly, yes, obviously it’s a process - characters have changed, things have changed; some storylines have changed - but the essence of it, the feeling of it, is really similar to how it was when we first came up with the pitch, before we even wrote it. We always wanted to do something kind of bold, risky, and very, very different. We both love big superhero movies, but we wanted to see something that felt completely fresh and different. So yeah, weirdly, the same, but also obviously different.

Generally speaking, Black Canary in the comics is typically a Caucasian, blonde female. You race-swapped her, but was that inherent in the script?

I would say that my friends at DC would rather I keep that secret [laughs]. You know I’m working on a bunch of DC things right now, so I cannot comment too much on that one. But yeah, it’s a weird one - like fun, wild process developing this one, and like I’m happy with the characters we ended up [with]. I love all of these women who in the comics I think have such a cool history, and getting to honor that history and do something new was fun.

With this movie being rated R, did you just let your mind loose? No reservations?

Yeah. Margot and I put that in I think in the first draft. It felt right to me, I wanted to. Warners have been wonderful and supportive. No one ever questioned it. I think Jurnee [Smollet-Bell] crushed it. She feels such a natural Black Canary.

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I went off. I just got to do whatever I wanted to do and not worry about the rating, which was really, really fun. And they were very supportive of it. I got to have some fun with the language, as you can probably tell, but also with the action; we did some really, really fun with the action that you can’t do with PG-13.

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