After debuting in 2016’s Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn (whose DCU future has yet to be clarified) returned four years later for Birds of Prey, this time accompanied by the likes of Huntress, Black Canary and Cassandra Cain. The heroines clashed with Gotham City crime lord Roman Sionis, a.k.a. Black Mask, whom I thought Ewan McGregor did a great (and sometimes hilarious) job playing. However, it turns out that originally Harley and her gal pals were originally supposed to be antagonized by a different, and frankly more famous Batman villain: Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin.
Robbie herself revealed this to Colin Farrell, her costar in the forthcoming 2025 movie release A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Farrell, of course, played The Penguin in 2022’s The Batman, then reprised the role last year for the character’s self-titled HBO miniseries, which netted him a nomination at the 2025 Emmy Awards airing next month. It was actually Penguin’s inclusion in The Batman that prevented Birds of Prey from using him, with Robbie recalling:
