Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is set to hit theaters early next year, bringing quite a few fan-favorite DC Comics female characters to the big screen. One character that is expected to play a key role in the film is Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a butt-kicking martial artist who moonlights as a singer in Roman Sionis’ (Ewan McGregor) Black Mask Club. Since Black Canary has been part of the DC Comics lexicon for over 70 years, there are quite a lot of interpretations for her big-screen portrayal to draw from — and it sounds like Smollett-Bell is a fan of some pretty specific ones. During an interview with Omeleteve at Brazil’s CCXP convention, Smollett-Bell spoke about portraying Black Canary, and revealed that she became a fan of the character partially thanks to the video game Injustice 2.
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“I mean for me, it’s such an honor to be bringing Black Canary to film, you know?” Smollett-Bell explained. “Black Canary, she’s such a legendary character, and I became a fan of her from Injustice 2. And it’s been amazing to work with these rockstar women, and feel the sisterhood that we have, and we all became so close too. It’s been a dream. It’s such a dream.”
The 2017 fighting game – which brings to life an alternate version of the DC Comics universe – has had a special place in fans’ hearts for years, especially with regards to how it portrays Black Canary. The game, and its various other tie-in media, saw Dinah and Oliver Queen/Green Arrow play major roles in the conflict as members of Batman’s Insurgency while dealing with the fact that the two of them come from different Earths.
While the Birds of Prey movie will definitely take a unique approach to Black Canary’s story, fans of the character will certainly love the idea that Smollett-Bell is such a fan of her across different forms for media.
“She’s the Dinah Lance that we know and love from the comics, you know?” Smollett-Bell revealed this past October. “This ferocious street fighter. When we meet Dinah in the film, though, she’s a singer in Roman’s Black Mask club, and she’s kind of disenfranchised and disconnected from the world. She doesn’t really want to have anything to do with crime fighting or being a good-doer, which is so against her nature because we know Dinah to be all heart. So it’s really about her accepting her gift and accepting her power and that’s what was so fascinating for me is to explore this woman who has such strength, but exploring someone who doesn’t want to own her power.”
Joker is in theaters now. Upcoming DC movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.
