Margot Robbie Wanted Birds Of Prey To Be R-Rated Even Before Deadpool Was Released

Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn will be returning in DC’s Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), and fans couldn’t be more excited to see her reprise the role. That said, they are also excited to see the film embrace an R-Rating, something that Suicide Squad decided to forgo to mixed results. The R-Rating fits that movie’s theme and characters, and the same can be said for Birds of Prey, and in a new interview with Variety, Robbie reveals it was something she pushed for. Nowadays that might not be a hard sell, what with Deadpool proving that a Rated-R superhero film can be a box office smash, but Birds of Prey was in development before Deadpool had been released, so there wasn’t a precedent.

Robbie wanted the film Rated-R from the beginning, but because movies like Deadpool, Logan, and most recently Joker hadn’t come out yet, she says “it took a bit of convincing.” Since then though those films have proved you can have a hard edge and still hit big at the box office, so we imagine those concerns have faded.

Robbie also thought it was important for Harley to be part of a group, and that’s something writer Christina Hodson wanted to highlight as well.

“She really wanted to see Harley with girlfriends, Harley in a girl gang,” Hodson said. “Harley is such a naturally sociable character. And I think there was just a general longing to see girls together on screen — women being friends.”

As for why Robbie wanted to bring a few friends along, husband and co-creator of LuckyChap Entertainment Tom Ackerley says that came directly from her own life experiences. “She has a group of friends in the U.K.; she has a group of friends in Australia; she has a group of girlfriends here,” he says. “They live fun and vivacious lives. And she was like, ‘I don’t see that on screen.’”

You can find the official description for Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) below.

“After splitting up with The Joker, Harley Quinn and three other female superheroes – Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya – come together to save the life of a little girl (Cassandra Cain) from an evil crime lord.”

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is directed by Cathy Yan and stars Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ewan McGregor, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Jenelle McKee, Ali Wong, and Matthew Willig.

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) hits theaters on February 7th, 2020.