Warning: SPOILERS for Birds of Prey.

Margot Robbie returns to her iconic role as Harley Quinn in director Cathy Yan’s ribald, R-rated superheroine team-up film, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Birds of Prey features the irrepressible criminal with her own girl gang, consisting of Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Here are all the biggest unanswered questions.

The Birds of Prey team up to take down Gotham crime boss Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), who’s after a diamond that could lead him to the Bertinelli family fortune worth billions of dollars. Birds of Prey is a sequel set after the events of 2016’s Suicide Squad, but the focus is on moving Harley beyond her identity as “The Joker’s girlfriend” so that she can stand apart and take charge of her own destiny. But first, Harley has to stay alive as dozens of Gotham’s worst thugs try to collect a bounty on her head. Ultimately, all of the Birds of Prey assert their agency and independence from the abusive men in their lives and strike out on their own by forming a crime-fighting superteam - although, Harley decides to set up shop as a bounty hunter.

The raucous and timeline-twisty Birds of Prey blazes its own corner of the (unofficially named) DC Extended Universe, but despite great reviews, its disappointing opening weekend box office could curtail a sequel being greenlit. Regardless, Robbie’s Harley Quinn will appear next year in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. While Birds of Prey is a self-contained story, the way the film handles its DCEU connections is a bit confusing, and the film leaves behind some big questions, which may not be answered, especially if there’s no sequel.

10. Where Was Batman During Birds of Prey?

Since Birds of Prey takes place entirely in Gotham City, the absence of Batman in the movie is jarring. After all, Batman even appeared in the Gotham City scenes of Suicide Squad, so it’s hard to believe that so much chaos involving Harley Quinn could happen in Gotham without the Dark Knight intervening. Cleverly, Birds of Prey circumvents Batman’s involvement by setting most of the film’s events during the daytime (since Batman operates at night), but the destruction of Ace Chemicals and the film’s climactic violence at Amusement Mile happen at night, and both would certainly have drawn Batman’s attention.

Of course, the real-life reasons for no Batman in Birds of Prey is that the character’s DCEU future is in flux. Ben Affleck was the Batman Harley encountered in Suicide Squad - to which Birds of Prey is a sequel - but his time in the cape and cowl appears to be over and director Matt Reeves is shooting his reboot, The Batman, with Robert Pattinson as the new, younger Dark Knight. So Birds of Prey skated around Batman, but it’s still awkward that the Caped Crusader has no presence in the film since Gotham is so synonymous with him. Even a throwaway line of dialogue that Batman is away on Justice League business would have solved this issue.

9. What Was The Joker Doing During Birds of Prey?

In contrast to Batman, the Joker’s presence looms large over Birds of Prey, even though he’s never actually seen outside of a crude drawing of Mr. J, some animation, and repurposed Suicide Squad footage that never shows Jared Leto’s face. Still, Harley Quinn’s psychotic ex-boyfriend is constantly mentioned in the film - but where is he and what is he doing while Harley is pursuing her emancipation? And what exactly happened between them that caused their break-up? After all, Joker spent the entirety of Suicide Squad trying to reunite with Harley, so it’s jarring that they break up off-screen with no explicit explanation.

Like Ben Affleck, Jared Leto is unlikely to play the Joker again, which explains why the film dances around him, but it’s still done awkwardly. Even if it’s presumed Joker didn’t care one bit about what Harley was up to or that most of Gotham’s criminals were pursuing a bounty to kill her, her destruction of Ace Chemical - which was a deliberate middle finger to Mr. J - should have provoked the Joker to respond in some way. The fact that he didn’t at all leaves Birds of Prey feeling a bit incomplete.

8. Why Hasn’t ARGUS Tried To Recapture Harley Quinn?

Suicide Squad ended with the Joker breaking Harley Quinn out of Belle Reve prison, and Birds of Prey picks up her story presumably a few years later. So why hasn’t ARGUS tried to recapture Harley, who is an escaped convict and part of Task Force X’s Suicide Squad program? And has the Squad been mobilized without Harley in the elapsed time between Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey? ARGUS not reacquiring Harley makes no sense, especially since there’s no doubt she and Joker returned to Gotham. And of course “Joker’s protection” doesn’t also extend to the U.S. government being too afraid to go after Harley.

Margot Robbie is a part of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad so Harley Quinn is inevitably going to return to Belle Reve. Hopefully, that film will provide a credible reason why ARGUS simply let Harley run loose in Gotham for so many years and even start a business for herself without trying to recapture her.

7. What Went Down Between Harley And Poison Ivy?

An animated version of Poison Ivy appears during Harley’s cartoon narration of her life, and she counts Ivy as one of the people who broke her heart before she met the Joker. So what happened between Harley and Ivy? If they met before Joker, it was likely at Arkham Asylum during the time when Harley was still psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel, so was Ivy actually the first patient Harley fell in love with and Mr. J was the second?

Birds of Prey establishing Poison Ivy as part of Harley’s romantic past seems to confirm Harley is bisexual, but it would be great if their love affair could be explored, which is something director Cathy Yan is interested in doing. Ivy and Harley’s relationship has been a big part of their DC Comics history, and it’s also center stage in DC Universe’s Harley Quinn animated series, but will fans ever get to see Harley and Ivy together in a movie?

6. Shouldn’t Huntress Be Arrested For Killing All Of Those Criminals?

Huntress has the best running joke in Birds of Prey where she keeps trying to announce her codename - “They call me…” - but everyone cuts her off and refers to her as “The Crossbow Killer.” So, about all that crossbow killing – at the end of Birds of Prey, shouldn’t Huntress have been arrested for all of the murders she committed? Instead, Renee Montoya and Black Canary join up with her to form the Birds of Prey team.

While it’s true that Huntress only murdered the Gotham mobsters who massacred her family, that doesn’t make all those killings right or lawful. Even if Montoya is no longer a cop at the end of the movie, it doesn’t make sense that she and Black Canary have no qualms about teaming up with a mass-murdering vigilante, even if Helena Bertinelli is bankrolling their new venture. Huntress should really have been arrested at the end of Birds of Prey, not back out on the streets hunting more criminals.

5. What’s The Story With Dinah’s Mother, The First Black Canary?

Birds of Prey revealed that Black Canary aka Dinah Lance is actually a legacy character and that her mother, who fought crime alongside the Gotham Police Department, had similar sonic scream superpowers. Because Dinah’s mother was killed in the line of duty and “died on the street,” Dinah vowed not to make the same mistake, and instead, she became employed by Roman Sionis.

But what is the real story of Dinah’s mother, and was she the original Black Canary? How long did she operate in Gotham, and did she know or even predate Batman (who was active in Gotham for 20 years before Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)? It’s a shame Birds of Prey didn’t delve deeper into Black Canary’s past and provide more info about her family legacy of heroism.

4. Why Did Roman Sionis Wear And Call Himself Black Mask?

Birds of Prey’s villain, Roman Sionis, is a narcissistic megalomaniac who wants to be the richest and most powerful crime lord in Gotham. He also calls himself Black Mask and wears a black mask… for some reason. Thanks to Harley’s narration, Birds of Prey simply states that Roman is known as “Black Mask,” but aside from a brief scene where Roman shows Harley his collection of artifacts, the movie never provides a full origin story for his black skull mask, why he wears it, and what the persona is supposed to symbolize for him.

In DC Comics, as in the film, Roman Sionis was a self-absorbed millionaire who became a Gotham crime boss, but his origin story involved his rich parents having a rivalry with Thomas and Martha Wayne. Roman grew up with an obsession with masks and later murdered his parents, developing his own rivalry with Bruce Wayne. He later became Black Mask by forging his headgear out of his father’s smashed ebony casket after Roman was struck by lightning. Except for running his family’s company, Janus, Birds of Prey omitted Roman Sionis’s origin so that he’s just called Black Mask because he sometimes wears a black mask.

3. Where Was Commissioner Gordon?

Commissioner James Gordon (J.K. Simmons) is also nowhere to be found in Birds of Prey, and this is perhaps even more of a glaring absence than Batman considering how prominent the Gotham Police are in the film. Renee Montoya is a GCPD detective, and the fact that she’s investigating Harley Quinn blowing up Ace Chemicals should have involved Gordon since the crime revolves around the Joker.

Fans are used to Gordon personally summoning Batman for any crime in Gotham involving a costumed supervillain, so Gordon not being around at all, especially after one of his precincts is invaded by Harley Quinn, is another big hole in the film. Further, like Ben Affleck and Jared Leto, it’s not clear if J.K. Simmons will play James Gordon again, especially with Jeffrey Wright cast as Gotham’s best cop in The Batman.

2. Why Didn’t Harley Join The Birds of Prey At The End?

After Harley and Cassandra Cain killed Roman Sionis, Harley doesn’t join the new Birds of Prey team. While Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee join forces, bankrolled by the Bertinelli fortune, Harley pawned the diamond they chased throughout the movie to set up her bounty hunting business. But why didn’t Harley become a Bird of Prey? Is it because the others didn’t want to join up full-time with a known criminal like Harley? If so, why are they okay with joining Helena, who is also a remorseless killer? Or did Harley turn them down to stay a solo operator?

Either way, Harley not actually joining the Birds of Prey seems to betray how the movie was sold: Harley forming her own girl gang. True, they did end up working together, but only at the end of the movie and only temporarily. Harley doesn’t actually stick with her newfound friends (besides Cassandra Cain), which deflates the central idea Birds of Prey is marketed around.

1. What Was Harley’s Secret About Batman?

Birds of Prey has no end-credits scene, but Harley does take pity on moviegoers who stuck around throughout the credits to deliver a final gag: she promises to tell us a secret about Batman. Unfortunately, she’s cut off before she actually gets to tell her secret - but what was it? Does she know Batman’s true identity? Was she going to talk about how she helped the Joker kill Robin? Does Batman also like ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches? We may never find out, but it was a fun joke for Birds of Prey to end on.

Next: Harley Quinn’s DCEU Future After Birds of Prey

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