Superhero films are still ruling the modern world of cinema, courtesy of the MCU, the DCEU, and other, non-related movies. Despite their prevalence, there is a surprisingly small number of recent superhero flicks focused on less than heroic characters.
Let's just check it out - Harley Quinn films... but not a Birds of Prey sequel, as it seems, and there are multiple reasons for that.
Updated April 24th, 2020 by George Chrysostomou: As the future of the DCEU continues to shift, there's plenty more reasons as to why a sequel to this film may never come to fruition.
The Arrowverse
The Arrowverse is continuing to heavily feature main characters from the Birds of Prey and is perhaps portraying them in a much more interesting way. In fact, there's set to be a new spin-off show in the future that feels eerily similar.
Featuring the famous clock tower and a new Green Arrow, it's almost as if this series might sur what the DCEU has done with the characters and therefore take away some of the attention from the cinematic versions of the team.
Conclusive Ending
The ending of the film feels very final. Quinn drives off into the sunset with her new pal while the rest of the women form their own team that's starting to clean up the streets of Gotham City, one crook at a time.
In many ways, there doesn't need to be a sequel here. This film sits by itself just fine. It's as if everything that needed to be achieved with this movie was done and now all the characters can move on to other things in this universe.
Other Appearances
One interesting aspect of having a DC cinematic universe is the fact that it's all connected. That means that any of these characters can shop up again in the future. It's likely that the Birds of Prey could be making another appearance.
While we know Quinn will be turning up again, likely alongside Cain, there's no need for a sequel to the film if Black Canary, the Question and Huntress can also be featured elsewhere in the DCEU.
New Characters
Now that all these characters have been set up and can be featured in other movies, there should be a focus on new characters once again. In order to expand this universe, there should be other comic book characters that are given the chance.
Whether it's other heroines like Batgirl, or perhaps more obscure characters or teams like the Justice League Dark, the world is always looking for a brand new franchise and set of characters to get behind; this might take priority over a sequel.
Creative Directions
Creatively there's not much else for these characters to be doing after the end of the movie. There doesn't feel like an organic way to get Quinn back with the team and there's not much evidence to suggest they should be able to lead their own film.
In of writing therefore, a sequel probably isn't on the table right now. It would have to take a really out of the box idea to green-light a second movie, in order to demonstrate the franchise will be moving in a fresh direction.
Box Office Results
Even though Harley's fans might wish otherwise, the biggest reason why Birds of Prey might not have a sequel, are the film's box office results. Hollywood is motivated by money in the first place and that's not bound to change anytime soon.
After all, it is a film business, emphasis on the business. And Birds of Prey didn't do as well at the box office as the film executives might have hoped. The film had a budget of 84 million dollars and it made only 33 million during the opening weekend, and 189 million in total. That sounds like a good result... until you compare it with other superhero films, who have made over a billion dollars worldwide.
Lack Of Good Villains
Don't get us wrong... Birds of Prey film, the sequel would have to find a similarly bizarre villain like Ewan McGregor's Black Mask wasn't a home run.
Also, while McGregor nailed the part, there's no denying that his character was more of a caricature than a genuine threat, and the moc iconic DC villains definitely don't deserve this type of screenwriting treatment.
Not A Real Story
Birds of Prey won the audiences over because it was a crazy ride filled with jokes and so many action moments... So much, in fact, the film almost managed to hide the fact that it doesn't really have that much of a story in the first place.
If you forget all the glitter and think about it really hard, the plot of the first film is very simple and it relies heavily on Harley... whose presence wouldn't make much sense in the sequel now that the team is fully established and both the Birds and Harley went their own separate ways. It might be difficult to bring them back together without the sequel feeling forced.
Missing Characterization
Another reason, why the sequel might not be a good idea, is connected to the fact that Birds of Prey isn't actually a story about the Birds of Prey. It's a story about Harley who breaks up with the Joker and decides to stand against Black Mask to save a young girl... Oh, and she also, more or less accidentally, creates a new superhero team in the process, something she definitely wasn't planning on.
Besides Harley, the remaining female characters don't get much space and fans might not care about them enough to look forward to the sequel, especially if they don't know the comics.
Too Many Films
In the end, besides its less than illustrious box office results, the main reason why there shouldn't be Birds of Prey 2 is the fact that there are simply too many DCEU movies. And a lot of them will feature Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn in one form or another, as you will read about only momentarily.
So unless the screenwriters could come up with a clever way how to connect the world of Birds of Prey and the Harley Quinn films and form them into one coherent whole, it'd be best to just leave the sequel in the realm of possibilities.
