Margot Robbie's Birds Of Prey Movie Originally Had A Completely Different Batman Villain

"Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)," or simply "Birds of Prey" if you want to be boring, was a breath of fresh air when it dropped in 2020. The second women-led DC Extended Universe film after 2017's "Wonder Woman," "Birds of Prey" is a stylish, hilarious, and satisfying superhero movie that puts Margot Robbie's wonderfully chaotic Harley Quinn front and center in a reluctant team comprised of her, Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). 

This all-star group of Batman-adjacent characters needed a great villain to work, and it got one in Ewan McGregor's Roman "Black Mask" Sionis. The "Star War" and "Trainspotting" actor portrays Sionis as a deliciously ruthless narcissist whose romance-coded relationship with his top henchman, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), has shades of obsession and control. Intimidating, unpredictable, and infinitely entertaining, the Black Mask is a perfect foe for Quinn and her allies, which makes it surprising to learn that the villain almost wasn't in the movie at all. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Robbie revealed that her character was originally supposed to face off against none other than the Penguin:

"The first draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of 'Birds of Prey', the villain was the Penguin. And then ['The Batman' director] 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."

Farrell, who famously went on to play Reeves' vision of Gotham's bird-themed crime lord, was present during the Entertainment Weekly interview and was appropriately fascinated by the information. (Farrell and Robbie were promoting their new film together, "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.") He even requested that Robbie send him a copy of the early "Birds of Prey" draft that featured the Penguin.

Farrell's interest in the subject is understandable, considering how committed the actor has been to the role of Oz "The Penguin" Cobb in Reeves' Batman Epic Crime Saga. Since making his debut as the character in 2022's "The Batman," the actor has gone to reprise the Batman rogue for HBO's acclaimed crime drama series "The Penguin." Indeed, while Farrell was initially concerned that Warner Bros. might cancel "The Penguin," he went on to win an Emmy for the show instead.

As such, this appears to be one of those happy cases where things worked out well for everyone. Farrell's prosthetics-heavy, brutal mobster take on the Penguin has been extremely well-received, and frankly, it's hard to imagine any version of the character who would be a better villain fit for "Birds of Prey" than McGregor's Black Mask turned out to be. Still, this news does make one wonder just what the "Birds of Prey" version of the Penguin would've been like, especially since Robbie told Farrell that the character would have been "amazing." Perhaps Farrell will one day let the world know after he's had the time to leaf through that early "Birds of Prey" script.

You can catch Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie in "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey" when the film opens in theaters on September 19, 2025.