The first official full trailer for Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is here, baby. In addition to being a mouthful, it’s a wild ride full of violence, bright colors, and queer characters.
The trailer starts with Harley (Margot Robbie, reprising her role from Suicide Squad) in a low place. She’s broken up with Joker, cutting her own hair, getting drunk in bars, and most importantly, looking to be emancipated. (Honestly, same.) That’s when she meets the other titular Birds of Prey: Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and 12-year-old Cass Cain (Ella Jay Basco).
Things only get wilder from there: Harley is singing like Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, then she’s having tweens help her commit murder. We even get to see her famous pet hyenas!
It’s clear this movie is trying to distance itself from the Joker — and specifically Jared Leto’s cringey, Razzie-nominated performance in Suicide Squad — as possible. In a voiceover, we hear Harley shouting, “I’m the one they should be scared of, not you, not Mista J! Because I’m Harley Freakin Quinn!”
But for those of you who have come here for the queer deets, you will not be disappointed. The teaser also features iconic lesbian detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), who is having a hard time fiting in with Gotham’s criminal and vigilante underground. She’s traditionally been a loner, partially due to being queer in a deeply Catholic family and partially because she’s a good cop in a city full of bad cops. As the trailer suggests, Montoya is going to have to deal with that baggage while working with the Birds.
Harley herself is canonically bisexual, and in modern comics, she’s most often romantically paired with Poison Ivy, not the Joker. Robbie, who is also a producer on the film and wants to produce more Harley Quinn movies for DC, said that she wants to bring Harley’s girlfriend into the DC movieverse.
“The Harley and Poison Ivy relationship is one of my favorite aspects of the comics, so I’m looking to explore that on screen,” the actress recently told PrideSource.
In more LGBTQ+ related speculation, we also get a good look at Black Mask (played by Ewan MacGregor) who is gay in the film, according to early rumors. Should that prove true, it means we could potentially have a bi protagonist, a lesbian good guy, and a gay bad guy all in one superhero movie! I need a glass of water.
But Birds of Prey is potentially historic for many reasons. The film is written by Taiwanese-British writer Chrstina Hodson (Bumblebee) and directed by Chinese-American director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs). It’s the first time an Asian woman has directed a major superhero movie.
Birds of Prey is set to kick audiences right in the teeth in February 2020.
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