After the critical disappointment of Batman v Superman (the movie failed to draw $1 billion in the worldwide box office, as well), Warner Brothers is hoping Suicide Squad is a much bigger success.
While the team-up of DC Comics’ super-villains likely won’t earn as much as BvS‘ $869 million (as of May 15), if it’s more popular with critics and fans and doubles its production budget (reportedly more than $200 million) in box office, the project will surely be deemed successful. Warner Bros. already seems to think it has a sure hit on its hands (and is already developing a sequel), or at the very least, a breakout character in Harley Quinn.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio is looking at developing a spinoff with Quinn (played by Margot Robbie) with eyes on using it as a vehicle for several of DC Comics’ female superheroes and villains. The characters mentioned in the THR article are Batgirl and Birds of Prey, which had Batgirl in a different identity teamed up with Black Canary, but could include a variety of other heroes (or villains) such as Katana (also featured in Suicide Squad) and perhaps a new version of Catwoman.
The report by Borys Kit explains that while doing research to play the psychotic Quinn, the Joker’s partner in crime and girlfriend, Robbie became intrigued by the variety of female heroes and villains available in the DC Comics universe of characters. She then recruited an as-yet-unnamed screenwriter (who’s female) to help develop the project and pitch it to Warner Brothers, and the studio showed immediate interest.
Not only is Quinn an enormously popular character among DC Comics fans, first debuting on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992 before eventually being utilized in the comic books, but developing a female-centered superhero movie would offer the moviegoing audience something that Marvel hasn’t yet. Scarlett Johansson has been popular as Black Widow, but there hasn’t been an effort to give the character a solo film. The studio is also developing a Captain Marvel project for a July 2018 release, but that part hasn’t yet been cast, nor has a director been chosen. (Nicole Perlman, who helped write Guardians of the Galaxy, and Meg LaFauve, one of the writers on Inside Out, are working on the screenplay.)
Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) making her debut in Batman v Superman was one of the more celebrated aspects of that movie, and a standalone film is scheduled for July 2017. Between that and this new project in development, DC and Warner Bros. could seize the early market on female superhero films and win over a fanbase that hasn’t been served by these blockbuster franchises.
Suicide Squad hits theaters on Aug. 5.
