Birds of Prey Producers Say They Didn’t Set Up James Gunn’s Suicide Squad

Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). She’s back as Quinn again in next year’s The Suicide Squad, a new film from director James Gunn. Given that they’re both DC Comics films being handled by Warner Bros. with a character in common, fans may assume there’s been some coordination between the two projects. Speaking to ComicBook.com at the film’s premiere event, producer Sue Kroll says that hasn’t been the case. Instead, the two films stand apart from each other, while sharing some natural threads in common.

“This was designed to be its own thing, standalone, singular, as is James’s Suicide Squad,” Kroll says. “But because the world is the world, there are these very interesting organic connections, I think, that end up evolving, but there wasn’t any kind of consultation among the filmmakers on the movies. And they, of course, started much later, as we were getting close to wrap, and so things were done pretty much independently. But something like for example Boomerang, it’s interesting, when they started shooting and planning Suicide Squad, it evolved, his photo evolved out of that kind of conversation. So those kinds of connections, but very organic.”

Robbie also spoke to ComicBook.com about The Suicide Squad and how it relates to Harley’s Birds of Prey experience. “You get to see another side of Harley,” Robbie says. “It’s interesting. You keep getting to meet her at different points in her life, as if a couple of years have gone by. Of course, the films aren’t directly connected, but as an actor, I can map it out in a chronological sense. So, it’s fun to see ‘Okay, what was she like a couple of years ago when she was with Mister J?’ ‘What is she like now, after they’ve broken up? And what is she going to be like in another couple of years’ time?’ I love seeing her at these different stages of her life.”

Like Birds of Prey, Gunn’s Suicide Squad movie is expected to earn an R-rating. The film is a follow-up, but not a sequel, to the 2016 David Ayer-directed Suicide Squad movie in which Robbie debuted as Harley Quinn. The film’s cast also includes other returning stars such as Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. New additions to the cast include Peter Capaldi, Idris Elba, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Sean Gunn, David Dastmalchian, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, John Cena, and Taika Waititi.

Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens on February 7th. The Suicide Squad opens on August 6, 2021. Other upcoming DC Films projects include Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, The Batman on June 25, 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.