Birds of Prey: Margot Robbie Teases the Film's Nonlinear Structure

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is set to debut next month, introducing audiences to a whole new side of the DC universe. The film is set to unite Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) with some of DC's most beloved female heroines, in a film that is expected to be as unpredictable as she is. In a new interview with Variety, Robbie spoke about the process of dreaming up Birds of Prey alongside screenwriter Christina Hodson, and revealed in the process that the film has a bit of an unconventional structure.

"We work in a similar way," Robbie explained. "We pulled a lot of references from the comics that we love, from different movies we love — we were really gravitating toward the idea of not having such a formulaic sort of structure, Trainspotting being of one of our favorite films. We would look at a movie like that, and then we'd break it down scene by scene, minute by minute. And funnily enough, it follows a three-act structure to the T, like, to the page, to the minute. And so we would look at a lot of films like that, like: "How did they achieve this feeling of this beautiful chaos, but within it, everything feels satisfying?" So the nonlinear aspect of the film came from those sorts of conversations."

"It's nonlinear. It jumps around," Robbie continued. "And then it becomes linear for the third act. You go on a ride, and it's all pretty chronological from there."

Birds of Prey will follow an unlikely alliance between Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), as they join forces against one of Gotham's most vicious crime lords, Black Mask (Ewan McGregor).

"It's always fun introducing audiences to a new character," Hodson told ComicBook.com in 2017. "It's great doing a deep dive into into all the different characters, doing my research on the characters collectively bit also individually and getting to know them a bit more, and then feeling free to go off-leash a little bit and do something new and different and bring them to screen in a way that felt right alongside Harley."

Are you excited to see Birds of Prey's nonlinear structure? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Upcoming DC movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7th, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, Shazam! 2 on April 1, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.