Birds of Prey Producer Sue Kroll On Sequel Opportunities: This Movie “Needs To Be Successful” First

JB Augustine |

Feb 14, 2020

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey co-producer Sue Kroll is less concerned with the possibility of a potential sequel or further spinoffs than she is with the floundering film being a success.

Kroll was interviewed by Slashfilm and asked about the most pressing and hotly debated topics swirling around BOP like buzzards ready to feast.

When asked if she sees “sequel opportunities,” Kroll said she’s focused on BOP’s release but “anything’s possible.”

“Well look, we have to get through the release. This needs to be successful. But this is a big expansive world. So of course, anything’s possible, yeah. I think people would love to see more stories. So we’ll see, but of course, it would be a very natural thing. But we haven’t talked about it at all, right now we’re focused on getting this movie open. One step at a time.”

Asked if faithfulness to the source material was a leading concern, Kroll said the fan base was very important but things had to work for the screen:

“I think everybody’s always concerned about being very respectful and mindful of the source material. Nobody wants to upset the fan base. The fans [are] very important, and their devotion and passion obviously, has propelled all these films. But I think that also the desire was to create characters that worked for the screen.”

She added the film sprung from the shared vision of writer Christina Hodson and Margot Robbie who admitted the same thing:

“This was, initially Christina Hodson’s vision and she was working very closely with Margot. And you want to be able to introduce aspects of the characters that are familiar that fans will love, but also create some kind of dimension around them. And tell the best version of the story that you can. And that was really the intention. It wasn’t deliberate in one way or the other, except that to tell the best possible version of the story for a movie experience.”

Kroll, in all, thinks it “worked out” and they found a balance delivering newness with the old:

“And I know, people are [always] going to be upset. I think sometimes when you have very faithful adaptations of anything, people are disappointed that maybe there’s nothing new. And if you stray too far people are upset about that. You have to try and find that balance. And I think for us, the win for us would be to create an exciting world that feels familiar and also unfamiliar at the same time, that’s populated with characters that people haven’t seen on film before. That we’re able to deliver on some of the things that people really want, but also give them things that are completely new.”

Birds of Prey is facing criticism for not being as faithful to the comics as it should be. Writer Jimmy Palmiotti is trying to mitigate this by pointing to three 800-page omnibuses of work he penned with wife Amanda Connor starting in 2013.

Margot Robbie’s portrayal of HarleyQuinn is exactly as we have been writing the character since 2013. For those saying she’s nothing like the character, may I suggest a 3- 800 pages collections where you can make the comparison. https://t.co/AdKQDqdfGa @birdsofpreywb

— Jimmy Palmiotti (@jpalmiotti) February 13, 2020

The film is also being blasted for misandry which isn’t helped by Gerry Conway’s Twitter rant against men and teenage boys whom he blames for its failure although it is openly called “feminist” and “less male gaze-y” by its stars.

I’m so disappointed by “Birds of Prey” box office and what it says about the male audience for superhero films. Here’s my controversial take (don’t hate me): the movie didn’t pull teenage boys because Margot Robbie didn’t want Harley Quinn to be sexualized as she was in SS.

— Gerry Conway (@gerryconway) February 9, 2020

But superhero movies unfortunately depend for a large part of their audience on young men, and without special powers, or a truly mind-bending set of special effects, what would draw young men to see “Birds of Prey” if there’s no…uh…T&A? It’s crass, horrible, shallow.

— Gerry Conway (@gerryconway) February 9, 2020

Retitled Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey for theaters, the movie is out worldwide. A sequel may be in doubt but Margot Robbie is back as Harley in 2021’s The Suicide Squad directed by James Gunn with an updated costume.