*Courtesy of Claudette Barius/Warner Bros.*

Before sharing the screen with Colin Farrell in 2025’s ‘A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,’ Margot Robbie almost crossed paths with Farrell’s most famous alter ego; Oswald Cobblepot, in 2020’s ‘Birds of Prey.’

The actress returned to her iconic DC Comics role as Harley Quinn in Cathy Yan’s all-female ensemble, as they faced-off against Ewan McGregor’s villainous Black Mask. However, the main villain in Yan’s ‘Birds of Prey’ was never supposed to be Black Mask… but the the Penguin himself.

“The first draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of Birds of Prey, the villain was the Penguin,” she said in an interview for Entertainment Weekly, alongside Colin Farrell. “And then [‘The Batman’ director/writer] Matt Reeves said, ‘Don’t use the Penguin. I’m going to use him in my thing.’ And so we swapped it to Black Mask [played by Ewan McGregor].”

Robbie also reprised her fan-favorite character in James Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ (2021), and while her next appearance as Harley remains uncertain, Gunn recently teased that her future in the DCU will “be revealed down the line.”

Gunn’s ‘Superman,’ which premiered last month, marked the beginning of a new DC Universe under the “Gods and Monsters” banner. This continuity is separate from Matt Reeves’ “Batman Epic Crime Saga,” which launched with ‘The Batman’ (2022) and expanded with HBO Max’s ‘The Penguin’ series last year.

As for what’s next, Gunn has defended the delays surrounding ‘The Batman Part II,’ now scheduled for release on October 1, 2027, following a year-long pushback. In June, Reeves and co-writer Mattson Tomlin confirmed that the sequel’s script is complete.

Warner Bros. Discovery revealed in a recent shareholder letter that filming will begin this spring.

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