Gail Simone Wants to Write Birds of Prey Spinoff With Black Canary

A fan-favorite Birds of Prey comic book writer wants a shot at a Black Canary solo movie. Gail [...]

By Jamie Lovett

A fan-favorite Birds of Prey comic book writer wants a shot at a Black Canary solo movie. Gail Simone took to twitter to suggest that she'd like the opportunity to write a Birds of Prey spinoff movie focusing on Jurnee Smollett-Bell's version of Black Canary. "All I am saying is Black Canary solo movie starring @jurneesmollett," Simone tweeted. "And I write it. And it has Huntress. And Savant and Creote." While the Birds of Prey concept was created for DC Comics by Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Chuck Dixon, Simone's run on the title is often credited with giving the all-female street-level superhero squad staying power. Simone is also particularly fond of Black Canary.

"You guys, when I took over BOP, it was going to be CANCELLED," Simone recalled in another tweet. "No one cared about Black Canary! She was my favorite and it made me sad and STUBBORN. Now she's in a gazillion dollar movie and is going to KILL in it. I can't even explain how happy this makes me!"

Based on the inclusion of Huntress, Savant, and Creote, it sounds like Simone's Black Canary movie would take inspiration from her own run on the Birds of Prey comic. When Simone took over the series in 2003, she added Huntress to the team's core alongside Black Canary and Oracle. Savant and Creote were some of the first villains she introduced, having them lure Black Canary into a trap.

Smollett-Bell came to appreciate Black Canary via another source, the Injustice 2 video game. "I mean for me, it's such an honor to be bringing Black Canary to film, you know?" Smollett-Bell said in a recent interview. "Black Canary, she's such a legendary character, and I became a fan of her from Injustice 2. And it's been amazing to work with these rockstar women and feel the sisterhood that we have, and we all became so close too. It's been a dream. It's such a dream."

In October, Smollett-Bell discussed the character in more detail. "She's the Dinah Lance that we know and love from the comics, you know?" she said. "This ferocious street fighter. When we meet Dinah in the film, though, she's a singer in Roman's Black Mask club, and she's kind of disenfranchised and disconnected from the world. She doesn't really want to have anything to do with crime fighting or being a good-doer, which is so against her nature because we know Dinah to be all heart. So it's really about her accepting her gift and accepting her power and that's what was so fascinating for me is to explore this woman who has such strength, but exploring someone who doesn't want to own her power."

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens on February 7th. Other upcoming DC Films releases include 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, Super Pets on May 20, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.

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