Birds of Prey Post-Credits Scene Explained

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) officially flies into theaters tonight, and it’s definitely giving audiences a one-of-a-kind entry into the superhero film genre. There are definitely aspects of comic book movies that are almost expected at this point, including some kind of post-credits scene. Even with Birds of Prey subverting so many expectations for comic book movies, it definitely does have something worth staying around through the credits for — and here’s what you need to know about it. Major spoilers for Birds of Prey below! Only look if you want to know!

After the film sends its group of women on their separate ways (which, for the sake of spoilers, you can read about here), the credits themselves roll uninterrupted. It’s not until the very final moments – as the Warner Bros. logo comes on the screen – that we get a post-credits sting. It comes in the form of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), continuing to narrate as she has been throughout the film itself. Harley talks to the audience, questioning why they’re still there, and offers to tell them a secret as a way to make their wait worthwhile. She then says “Batman’s real name is…”, but the film cuts off before she can say the phrase “Bruce Wayne”.

The moment is one of several nods to Batman in Birds of Prey, including the fact that Harley names her pet hyena “Bruce”. Given how savvy Harley is – and the circumstances of Batman initially throwing her into prison during the events of Suicide Squad – it certainly makes sense that she would know his civilian identity.

For some, the question of Batman’s presence in Gotham has hung over Birds of Prey for years, with some expecting a stronger allusion or even a cameo from the Dark Knight. But for the film’s creative team, the dance around the Batman of it all made sense.

“Well, there’s a little cheeky nod to Bruce Wayne, but no.” director Cathy Yan told ComicBook.com. “I mean, part of it is that like it was very intentional to keep this kind of out of that, out of the center of power if you will and the stakes of this movie aren’t particularly high, but I like that you know? She’s not saving Gotham, no one’s saving Gotham here, but they are trying to save this little girl and they’re trying to take down someone who’s trying to take over Gotham but even Roman Sionis, I mean, he is not yet the biggest kingpin – he’s trying to be – in all of Gotham so there’s this sort of scrappy like almost sort of fringe element, you know aspect of this movie that I really like.”

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is in theaters now. Other upcoming DC movies 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, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.