The comic book world certainly needs a movie or two where a female character is the star, but the news Monday that a Harley Quinn spin-off is already in the works seems a bit hasty.
According to reports, Margot Robbie, who will portray the psychiatrist-turned-villain this summer in Suicide Squad, became so intrigued by the wealth of female characters in the DC Comics Universe that she has kicked off the interest in this project, which DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. are now considering.
The problem is that we’re still three months away from Suicide Squad coming out and while the few snippets from the star-studded flick look good – and Robbie gets some shine in those moments – lots of movies look great in trailer form and then flop at the theatre, so why not wait and see how Suicide Squad does in theatres and what kind of reviews Robbie gets for her performance before going too far down the rabbit hole with a spin-off to the point where you can’t come back?
Because in this social media, everything is a story world we live in, “we’re thinking about it” gets reported as “it’s happening” and before you know it, people are fantasy casting the film and trying to determine which story arc the film will follow. It would have to be an origin story, right? Right.
Having said that, you have to give DC Entertainment some love for looking into this and moving more quickly on bringing a female character to the big screen ahead of Marvel Studios, the guys that rule the comic book movie world right now, but have yet to have a female character in a stand-alone.
Gal Gadot will reprise her Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice role as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in a standalone film that just wrapped filming last week and is scheduled for release on June 2, 2017. Marvel’s first female-led solo flick, Captain Marvel, is still looking for a director and is scheduled for release in March 2019.
What’s curious (and upsetting for some) is that Marvel has had a great character fans are quite familiar with to spin-off standing in front of them since Iron Man II and through several other movies: Black Widow.
Scarlett Johansson has portrayed the super spy/Avenger five times now and she’s been one of the most important characters in that collection of films from the start, with people calling for a Black Widow solo move for some time. Of course, she repeatedly got left out of various toy sets that came out when Avengers: Age of Ultron got released, so giving her an entire movie seems like it might be a bridge too far… sadly.
