Margot Robbie Pitched Birds of Prey While Shooting Suicide Squad

While David Ayer's Suicide Squad made a substantial amount of money at the box office upon its release in 2016, it was largely maligned by both critics and fans, considered by most to be a bit of a disaster. Whether it was because of the studio taking control of Ayer's vision or a messy idea from the get-go, Suicide Squad just didn't work. However, many of the casting decisions made for the film were celebrated by fans and actually remained intact for future films. Margot Robbie has been widely praised for her take on Harley Quinn, so much so that she's set to star in multiple new projects as the popular antihero.

First up is Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), which arrives in theaters on February. Robbie's Harley an ensemble that includes Huntress Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) against the evil Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). From the tone of the first trailer, this movie looks to be a ton of fun and a major departure from Suicide Squad, but it was on the set of Ayer's film when Robbie actually pitched the idea for this new project.

During a visit to the set of Birds of Prey, attended by ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis, Robbie talked to available press about her initial vision for the movie.

"Well, I first actually pitched the notion when we were actually still shooting Suicide Squad, because I kept saying Harley does so much better when she has people to play with," Robbie explained. "And I had kept thinking that in real life I have such a girl gang, like my group of girlfriends, and I was like, I just want Harley to have a girl gang. I just want there to be a girl gang for Harley to be a part of. And then, obviously, I'd been reading a ton of the comics, anything involving Harley. And one of the separate line of comics is The Birds of Prey, which I started reading. And Harley's not a traditional member of the Birds of Prey, but it was a fun kind of girl gang to kind of dip in and out of, I suppose."

Robbie really wanted to incorporate parts of Harley's comic lore that had nothing to do with Joker, and Birds of Prey really granted her that opportunity.

"Like her at a roller derby, for example. I was like, ah, there's a couple of visuals that's like, if we could just incorporate this in some way, that'd be great," she continued. "And yeah, her babies, her pet hyenas, definitely. And BB, of course. Yeah. I just love how she has such, yeah, an eclectic group of friends and loved ones, which I wanted to incorporate."

Are you looking forward to Birds of Prey? Let us know in the comments!

Birds of Prey hits theaters on February 7th.