Birds of Prey Gets Its Official R Rating

DC’s upcoming Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) movie will carry an R rating. The rating showed up on IMBD, which lists the reasons for the rating as “strong violence and language throughout, and some sexual and drug material.” this will give Margot Robbie some additional room to play in the role of Harley Quinn compared to having to rein herself in for the PG-13 Suicide Squad in 2016. “I did feel like I had to censor myself a lot, obviously, to suit a PG rating,” Robbie told ComicBook.com on the Birds of Prey set said of her first outing as Harley. “And a lot of the characters that exist in the DC world, to be honest, are quite dark. And a lot of them, Huntress for example, have serious childhood trauma, have serious mental illnesses, like Harley, whatever, but I felt like we never… Sometimes you can’t really go as deep with those things if you have to censor yourself. And I thought, wouldn’t it be liberating if we didn’t have to worry about that and really go for it, and then later, in the edit, kind of find where the tone of movie lies.”

A previous report suggested that the film would have an R rating, with Warner Bros. being more comfortable with the idea after the success of Joker. But the report also stated that it won’t have the same “pitch-black, grim” tone as Joker, but is going for more of a “humorous, spirited, girl gang adventure” vibe instead.

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) stars Margot Robbie, reprising her role as Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad. The movie also introduces Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, and Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, the founding members of the girl gang-like vigilante team called the Birds of Prey. Rosie Perez also stars as Gotham City Detective Renee Montoya. Ewan MacGregor and Chris Messina play the villains Black Mask and Victor Zsasz, respectively. Cathy Han is directing the film. Christina Hodson wrote the script.

Are you excited about the Birds of Prey movie? What do you think of the R rating? Let us know in the comments! Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens in theaters on February 7, 2020. Other upcoming DC Extended Universe movies include Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, and The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021.