Harley Quinn meets Black Mask and Victor Zsasz in a new image from Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). David Ayer’s Suicide Squad got a lot of flack from critics back in 2016, but most of them still agreed on one thing: Margot Robbie was pretty terrific as the psychiatrist-turned crazed antihero Harley Quinn. Warner Bros. quickly made plans to bring her back in the role after that, developing as many as four different Harley Quinn films at one point.

The studio eventually decided to move forward with Birds of Prey first, though Robbie will also reprise her role as Harley for James Gunn’s quasi-sequel The Suicide Squad in 2021. Written by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee) and directed by Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs), the movie picks up with Harley sometime after she’s left her boyfriend, The Joker. Don’t expect to see Jared Leto back as the Clown Prince of Crime from Ayer’s movie, either; Birds of Prey is said to generally ignore Suicide Squad, save for Robbie’s turn as Harley.

Story-wise, Birds of Prey follows Harley as she tries to “emancipate” herself from her toxic relationship with Joker and teams up with the vigilantes Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Gotham cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) to protect a young girl named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) after the crime lord Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) orders a hit on her. You can check out a new image from the movie below, courtesy of Fandango.

Black Mask aka. Roman Sionis is a sadistic crime lord who enjoys torturing others and earned his nickname thanks to his obsessions with wearing (what else) masks. He’s accompanied here by Chris Messina (Sharp Objects) as Victor Zsasz, an equally twisted criminal and serial killer who keeps track of his kills by carving the tally marks on the skin of his victims. Black Mask and Zsasz were both featured on Fox’s Gotham TV series, though the latter also briefly showed up in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (where he was played by Tim Booth).

Neither Messina nor McGregor are usually type-cast as villains and the pair appear to be having a blast playing against type in the Birds of Prey marketing material released so far (this photo included). McGregor, is particular, is far better known for portraying the romantic lead in films like Moulin Rouge! or the heroic Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels (a role he will reprise in an upcoming Disney+ series). For that reason, it ought to be especially fun to watch the versatile actor leave his mark on Black Mask and, hopefully, deliver one of the more memorable - if not the most memorable - bad guys in a DC Extended Universe film yet with his performance in Birds of Prey.

Source: Fandango

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