Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn’s Hyena is Named After Batman

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) will put Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn at the forefront — and she won’t be alone. After spending time on the film’s set, ComicBook.com had the chance to see how zany the film will be, fully embracing the character’s animation roots, but also nodding to the larger universe which exists in Gotham City. One such acknowledgement is coming in the form of Harley’s pet hyena. The character has named one of her extravagant pets after the Caped Crusader from Gotham City, Batman himself, after having an encounter with the character which was seen in Harley’s Suicide Squad big screen debut.

Now, the hyena’s name is not “Batman” but it is “Bruce” which seems almost certainly in tribute to Bruce Wayne. The team on set preferred to keep the meaning of the name for the movie but it’s hard to imagine Harley Quinn is coming up with such a name by coincidence.

“I just love how she has such, yeah, an eclectic group of friends and loved ones, which I wanted to incorporate,” Robbie said, in reference to a group which also includes a beaver with a pink tutu, an homage to Bernie from DC Comics.

In Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn was seen fleeing from Batman with her boyfriend Joker. In Birds of Prey, there won’t be much of a connection to Suicide Squad at all, although the film will co-exist with the other DC universe movies. “I think that given what the story’s about and her emancipation and that she’s out on her own and she’s not connected the Joker and with Suicide Squad, she’s so connected to the Joker,” Yan said. “I mean their story is so intertwined and it really is a love story, if you will. And this is not, and so I think that gave us a lot of opportunity to say like, what is she like, not necessarily post joker, but just in almost like a parallel universe and allowed, I think all of us freedom to say like we’re going to create a different Gotham.”

In Batman: The Animated Series where Harley Quinn first appeared, the character had two pet hyenas by the names of Bud and Lou. According to their more detailed story laid out on the pages of DC Comics, Bud and Lou were freed from the Gotham Zoo by Harley. They’re vicious creatures but remain tame in her presence as she is their clear master, often referring to them as her “babies.” Why she named her hyena in Birds of Prey “Bruce” will be seen when the film comes out next year.

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Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) hits theaters on