Birds of Prey Star Explains How Black Canary Was Inspired by Injustice 2

The stars of Birds of Prey have all sorts of source material to pull from for their characters, but one actress has found inspiration for Black Canary through Injustice 2. Jurnee Smollett-Bell, the actress who will portray Black Canary in the upcoming DC film, recently spoke to ComicBook.com during a Birds of Prey event to explain how she pulled from Injustice 2 to get the Canary Cry right for her character.

Smollett-Bell said her character’s Canary Cry was directly inspired by Black Canary from Injustice 2. In fact, she said she “drew a lot of inspiration” from the version of the character that’s found in the DC fighting game.

ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis asked Smollett-Bell about her character at a recent Birds of Prey event and learned of the inspirations behind Black Canary.

“I drew a lot of inspiration for the Canary Cry from the Black Canary in Injustice 2,” Smollett-Bell said. “Yeah, even physically. But for me, I really wanted to make it very primal. That was part of it for me, because it’s, it’s not something she uses, you know, it’s something she’s trying to hide, and so to get to the point to rev herself up, it’s coming from such a guttural point and a guttural place. But it was fine man. I mean they put a bunch of people on some strings and ratcheted them back and it was awesome. I felt really powerful.”

Black Canary was one of many DC characters who was in the Injustice 2 fighting game from NetherRealm and Warner Bros. The character will be featured prominently in Birds of Prey alongside Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress.

Those three characters are far from the only recognizable ones we’ll see in Birds of Prey, though it’s unclear how many Easter eggs we’ll find in the movie that relate to the DCEU as a whole. Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson recently spoke to ComicBook.com at a press event about potential Easter eggs and hinted that we might see some, though the movie itself will be friendly towards newcomers.

In the time leading up to Birds of Prey’s release next month, we’ve seen some new looks at the outfits for the characters which pull inspirations from DC’s comics. We’ve also seen promotions like big IMAX posters which showcase the main cast all together.

Birds of Prey is scheduled to be released in theaters on February 7th.