DC’s Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey Movie Finds a Director

Following the success of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. put several potential films starring the character into development. There’s the direct sequel from filmmaker Gavin O’Conner, while David Ayer was attached to Gotham City Sirens. Then there’s a Birds of Prey-type movie and Harley Quinn vs. The Joker. Now, the studio has picked which movie is going next.

According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has chosen Cathy Yan to direct its untitled Harley Quinn spinoff, which is based on the Birds of Prey comics. The up-and-comer, whose only film thus far is Dead Pigs, is the first Asian filmmaker to make a superhero movie. She’s also the third female director to join DC Films, following Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman and Ava DuVernay on The New Gods. Before directing full-length features, Yan was a Wall Street Journal reporter, and she went on to direct multiple short films.

Yan’s presentation for Birds of Prey was said to be “exceptional,” while Margot Robbie was determined to hire a female director for this project. The film is written by Christina Hodson, who was hired just last week to tackle Batgirl.

Production is expected to begin either at the end of the year or early next year, so it clearly has been prioritized over the other planned movies. According to Variety’s Justin Kroll, this means that Suicide Squad 2 is no longer shooting this year. There was also interest in introducing Batgirl in this movie before she gets her own film (think Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War). So both movies being written by Christina Hodson was no accident.

Stay tuned for more news as we have it.