Small Details You Missed In The Birds Of Prey Trailer

2016's Suicide Squad was something of a mixed bag — the movie made a killing at the worldwide box office (it raked in just shy of $750 million) but didn't go down very well with the critics. The DCEU flick ended up with a pretty poor 27 percent rating on the Tomatometer, and the audience score (56 percent) was nothing to write home about, either. Director David Ayer said that in hindsight, he regretted not putting more of Jared Leto's Joker in the movie, but it wasn't Leto that resonated with viewers.

Fans and critics alike seemed to agree that Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was one of the few good things to come out of Suicide Squad, a standout character in an otherwise forgettable film. Warner Bros. quickly became aware of this and decided to let Robbie front her own movie — though she won't be alone. Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is being described as a girl gang movie, and now that the first full trailer for the film is out, we know why and how this gang is going to come together. For this, and all the other small details we noticed, read on.

In the comics, Harley Quinn has largely been defined by her toxic relationship with the Joker. That was also the case in 2016's Suicide Squad, but she's leaving her Puddin' behind in Cathy Yan's movie. The "Fantabulous Emancipation" part of the title refers to the fact that Harley Quinn has broken up with the Joker, and she confirms as much in the trailer. We see Robbie's character chopping off the pink and blue-tinged tips of her hair in one shot, and this isn't just a play on the fact that people often enjoy a makeover after a breakup.

Harley Quinn's hair was a big part of her costume in Suicide Squad, and having Robbie cut it off is seemingly symbolic of the character moving on from that much-derided movie. But can she move on from the Joker completely? The opening shot of the trailer sees Harley Quinn and her new sidekick Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) walking down a deserted road with the bright lights of Gotham's cityscape in the background, but the purple light in the foreground seems to suggest that the Joker is still following her for the time being.

One of the standout shots from the first Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer sees Harley Quinn lying in what appears to be her own apartment throwing knives at a crude picture of her ex that she's pinned to the wall. The drawing resembles Jared Leto's Joker somewhat, though there's one obvious omission — his controversial forehead tattoo is missing.

David Ayer attempted to make his version of the Joker stand out from the rest by giving him plenty of tats and a shiny mouth grill for good measure. He later admitted that having the word "damaged" tattooed across the Joker's forehead was "one step too far" in a tweet (via Batman-News). "In my mind it was meant for Batman after he smashed Joker's teeth for killing Jason Todd, some people found it alienating," Ayer added. "Originality and faithfulness to the canon are often at odds. Batman and Joker are my two favorite characters ever." For us, this seems like another instance of Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn distancing itself from 2016's Suicide Squad.

Dinah Lance (a.k.a Black Canary) is one of the original members of the Birds of Prey in the New 52 continuity, and Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn seems to be taking inspiration from this version of the character, who's being portrayed by Jurnee Smollett-Bell in the movie. Lance appears early in the trailer, chatting with Harley over a drink — she listens to Quinn as she explains why "no one gives two s***s" about people like them. Quinn is apparently recruiting her.

We see several snippets of Lance performing onstage during the trailer, which won't come as a surprise to DC fans. In the comics, the character fronts a band named Black Canary (DC even released a three-track EP by the fictional group in 2016) and doubles as a crimefighter on tour. Her signature metahuman superpower is her sonic scream — known as the Canary Cry — which is an incapacitating sound that leaves her enemies helpless. Eagle-eyed fans will have noticed that the movie version will have this power, too. In the trailer, we see a martini glass start to shake as the vigilante sings on stage, but we cut away before she hits the high note.

Ewan McGregor is playing the big bad in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. His character, Roman Sionis, goes by Black Mask in the comics because he wears (you guessed it) a black mask. McGregor's version of the character won't be totally comic book accurate when it comes to appearance — on the page, his mask (carved from his mother's coffin) is burned into his skin so severely that it's actually indistinguishable from his actual face. That clearly isn't the case here, but there's some subtle foreshadowing in the trailer.

The inked version of this Gotham mob boss is known for being mentally unstable (he ends up in Arkham Asylum after being shot in the face by Catwoman) and it appears as though McGregor's Black Mask will share that trait. Just before the halfway point of the trailer he can be seen with his head in his hands, in clear distress. Just over his shoulder, a figure with a black face looms large. Could this be the moment that Sionis goes full villain and becomes the Black Mask that Harley Quinn and her crew will have to take out? One thing we know for sure is that he has a fascination with the eponymous character — "Miss Quinn? She belongs to me," he can be heard saying.

Sticking with the villains, there's a shot of Sionis talking to Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), a psychotic serial killer from the comics. This won't be his first movie appearance — he was a supporting villain in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, escaping from Arkham Asylum during the Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul's short-lived reign of terror. He's also been seen in the Gotham TV series as a right-hand man in Carmine Falcone's crime syndicate, and it appears as though he'll be doing the same thing in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

The version of Mr. Zsasz being portrayed by Chris Messina (he's shown a couple of times in the trailer, upside down from Harley Quinn's point of view in one instance) looks different from those that came before him, both in terms of live action and animation. DC fans will have figured out who he is from his scars, however. Zsasz was born to a wealthy family, but after he lost his parents in an accident he fell into a deep depression and squandered his fortune. He went down a dark path and became a serial killer, making a cut on his arm to mark his first victim... and he didn't stop there. The comic book character has hundreds of scars on his body, keeping a tally of all the people he's murdered.

A teaser that played in cinemas prior to showings of It: Chapter Two confirmed that Harley Quinn's hyenas would be making their big-screen bow in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, and we get a good look at one of them in the first trailer. Like Harley Quinn herself, Bud and Lou (named after legendary comedy duo Abbot and Costello) made their debut in Batman: The Animated Series, but would later cross over to DC's comics. At one stage both were stolen by thieves who attempted to auction them off, but Quinn located her babies and put an end to the racket.

It looks as though a version of this will play out in the movie. Originally, Quinn acquired Bud and Lou and when she and the Joker raided Gotham Zoo, but in the Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer, she appears to get at least one of her hyenas from some kind of exotic animal dealer. In a later shot, the animal runs at the dealer who, we can only assume, meets a violent end. In one of the trailer's standout shots, Quinn shares what looks like a piece of candy with her new pet, Lady and the Tramp style.

There's a musical feel to the Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer. Not only do we see Jurnee Smollett-Bell's Black Canary performing at a club that's clearly important to the plot (it seems pretty clear that it's owned by Ewan McGregor's Black Mask, who asks patrons if they're having a good time), but Harley Quinn herself has a song and dance number in which she channels Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes — though it's a much darker version.

Quinn has a typically deranged look on her face during the routine, and the suited men surrounding her all wear black masks. We know that Sionis has a thing for Quinn — could he convince her to start working for him at the club? She goes through a number of costume changes in the trailer (none of which are as ridiculously revealing as her Suicide Squad outfit, we might add) but we can't see her agreeing to wear this particular getup. This scene is most likely some kind of dream/nightmare sequence, inspired by her fear of the film's antagonist. That obviously won't last, however. As she puts it in the trailer, "I'm the one they should be scared of."

She isn't known for being a member of the Birds of Prey in the comics, but Renée Montoya (played by Rosie Perez in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) will fit right in. On the page, the character starts out as a no-nonsense cop, but she ends up quitting the Gotham City Police Department when she grows tired of the corruption. Judging from one of the shots we see of her in the trailer, she's going to leave the force pretty early in the movie — she can be seen walking though a room full of male cops with a box under her arm, seemingly having cleared out her desk.

In the comics, Montoya eventually takes on the moniker the Question, originally used by an investigative journalist who sought to end corruption by any means necessary. She's also known for being an openly gay character, though there's nothing in the first full Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer to suggest that her sexuality will be integral to the story. Quinn began a romantic relationship with Poison Ivy in Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Chad Hardin's Harley Quinn series, but as far as we know Poison Ivy won't be appearing in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

The Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer is only two minutes long, but we're shown enough to get a good feel for the movie. Tonally, it won't be as grim as 2016's Suicide Squad. Yes, we're going to get to see a more fragile side of Harley Quinn (the pain she feels over her breakup with the Joker is made evident in a number of shots, especially the one in which she cuts her hair), but the crazy character we all came to love in that film will be back in full force. She uses dynamite, delivers dropkicks, she breaks bones, but — crucially — she won't be killing people for the heck of it.

The title of the movie clearly refers to her emancipation from the Joker, but it appears as though Harley Quinn will develop something of a conscience. Not only is she going up against a Gotham evildoer of her own volition (unlike Suicide Squad, nobody's forcing her to pick the right side), she's also going about it in a semi-responsible way. In one shot, she uses a bean bag shotgun on a (presumably corrupt) cop as opposed to a real one. It's enough to send him flying, but he'll be able to walk it off.

Her superhero costume isn't quite as purple as it is in the comics, but a few small things in the Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer suggest Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Helena Bertinelli (a.k.a Huntress) will be somewhat faithful to the source material. Some of them are more obvious than others — she's going to ride a motorcycle and wield a crossbow, for example. In the comics, Helena (a so-called "mafia princess" of the Bertinelli crime family) was taken in by her Sicilian aunt and uncle after her family was massacred, and they taught her archery among other skills that she'd later put to use as a vigilante in Gotham.

Another Huntress character trait is that she's a deeply religious person. This leads us to believe that the third shot in the trailer (a woman praying in a church) is Bertinelli. We only see her from behind, but at this early stage in the trailer the ladies that will become the Birds of Prey are clearly being introduced, and DC fans have been able to figure this one out. In a later shot, a woman wearing what appears to be the same modest outfit is strung upside down alongside two other females by Black Mask, so she appears to have previous contact with the villain prior to hooking up with Harley Quinn and the gang.

Cassandra Cain is a member of the Bat-family in the comics. She takes on the mantle of Batgirl at one stage, though the version of Cain we see in the Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer seems pretty far removed from the badass she is on the page. In DC's comics, Cain is a talented martial artist, raised by assassin parents who taught her how to fight instead of teaching her how to speak. Ella Jay Basco's version of the character talks in the film's first trailer, so we know that she won't be mute in the movie.

The big-screen Cassandra Cain must have something about her, however, because Black Mask appears to be after her for some reason. The plot of Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn seems like it revolves around Quinn and her newly formed girl gang protecting Cain from the ruthless crime lord by any means necessary, and the youngster becomes an unwilling (at least, at first) sidekick to "that psycho chick" along the way. Does Warner Bros. have bigger plans for Basco's Cain down the line? We'll have to wait and see, but Basco is clearly relishing the role.

By the end of the Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn trailer, the gang is fully formed and ready to kick some butt. We don't know how or why Quinn and her young friend Cassie Cain get involved with Black Mask, but the trailer establishes motives for her new teammates. We know that Renée Montoya quits the Gotham City Police Department because she's tired of corruption in the comics, and that will obviously tie in to Black Mask's activities in the movie.

The mobster appears to be posing as a legitimate businessman who owns a nightclub — the club where Jurnee Smollett-Bell's singer Dinah Lance (a.k.a Black Canary) plies her trade. Judging by the conversation she has with Harley Quinn early in the trailer, Lance is unhappy with her work and her boss. When it comes to Huntress, her whole thing is upholding the Bertinellis' original mission of protecting others. All of these women have a bone to pick with Black Mask, but the trailer makes it clear that Quinn is the one who unites them in their cause.