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Warner Bros. and DC have been trying to find another movie for Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn ever since Suicide Squad released over two years ago. Several projects were in development, with Birds of Prey chosen as the eventual winner. The film will see Harley ditching her old Suicide Squad pals and teaming up with other female heroes like Huntress and Black Canary. It seems some out there are wondering how Harley could leave her friends on the Suicide Squad for a new team, and director David Ayer has defended the move by pointing out the villainous super-group's members never liked each other in the first place.
It's known by now that Suicide Squad was the subject of several reshoots that changed both the tone and story beats from director David Ayer's original vision, and since the film's initial release, details have emerged about what was cut or changed in the film, such as the Joker's diminished role. On Twitter, Ayer said that Joker's story originally saw him making a deal with the Enchantress to take Harley and become the "King of Gotham," but Harley rejected him for her "new friends." Someone from the peanut gallery replied that if Ayer had focused on Harley learning to "love her new friends," then the movie would have fared better. Well, someone else disagreed with that view and posted a rebuttal, which is the one that Ayer retweeted.
The Twitter user rebuked the idea that Harley would continue to have any connection to the members of the Suicide Squad. They all only knew each other for one day and were forced by the threat of death to hang out, and they definitely aren't the type of people to believe in the power of friendship. Thus, Harley would betray them all for Joker in a heartbeat, which is something David Ayer agrees with. That's not what happened in the movie, to be sure, and was likely due to studio meddling.
Further down in the thread, another commenter pointed out that Diablo considers the squad family, so then why can't Harley? Ayer responded saying they are two different people and thus can feel different about things. He further pointed out that Harley's arc got simplified in the final product.
Bringing things back to Birds of Prey, it's unknown how that movie will tackle the Joker at all. The villain broke Harley out of prison at the end of Suicide Squad, so Birds of Prey will likely have to address their relationship status. The Joker and Harley "romance" is extremely complicated, but all of her best stories involve Harley branching out on her own, so we'll have to see how Birds of Prey handles this.
Birds of Prey is aiming to go into production at the beginning of 2019, with Cathy Yan attached to direct. Margot Robbie is the only one attached to star at the moment, but the studio is looking at a lot of great talent to fill out the other roles. Stay tuned for future updates!