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:
The first draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of Birds of Prey, the villain was the Penguin... And then [director/writer] Matt Reeves said, 'Don't use the Penguin. I'm going to use him in my thing,'" Robbie explained. "And so we swapped it to Black Mask [played by Ewan McGregor].
Colin Farrell was surprised when Margot Robbie brought this up during an interview with EW, prompting him to ask how Christina Hodson did writing Penguin in Birds of Prey. Robbie said this take on the character was “amazing,” but didn’t divulge any specific details. However, the Barbie actress and executive producer still has a copy of that earlier script and told Farrell she’d send it to him. So he’ll be one of the few people to get a peek at what could have been in this corner DC Extended Universe.
There is a reality where Birds of Prey wouldn’t have been able to use The Penguin without any issues. That’s because before The Batman became a non-DCEU movie starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, it was meant to spotlight Ben Affleck’s version of the Caped Crusader following his appearances in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League. That incarnation of The Batman would have featured Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke as the main villain, leaving Birds of Prey to utilize The Penguin unimpeded.
That plan went out the proverbial window once Affleck exited the project and Matt Reeves came aboard to reboot Batman once again, leaving Black Mask to take Penguin’s place. As much as I would have liked to have seen what the DCEU’s Oswald Cobblepot looked like, I think it was for the best that we got Black Mask in Birds of Prey instead. Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis fit well with the vibe of the Cathy Yan-directed movie, and this allowed for another Batman villain to appear in their first live-action movie, whereas Penguin had already been played by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns.
Stream Birds of Prey with an HBO Max subscription if you’re now in the mood to revisit the antics of McGregor’s Black Mask. Catch Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell together in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey starting on September 19, and expect Colin Farrell to step back into The Penguin’s shoes when The Batman: Part II is released on October 1, 2027.
