New 'Birds of Prey' trailer appears to kill off Jared Leto's Joker and Twitter is celebrating: 'Thank you Harley Quinn!'
With the guy-heavy super-teams the Avengers and the Justice League disbanded (for now), 2020 is the year where female heroes take over the multiplex in a big way... both in front of and behind the camera. In a long-overdue first, all four major comic-book movies set to be released this year are directed by women and star some of Hollywood’s leading actresses, including Scarlett Johansson, Gal Gadot and Angelina Jolie.
But it’s Margot Robbie who gets to take the first swing — literally — with Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Due in theaters on Feb. 7, the sort-of Suicide Squad sequel ditches Harley Quinn’s lame male colleagues like Deadshot (Will Smith), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and, especially, the Joker (the Jared Leto version, not Joaquin Phoenix) in favor of female ruckus-raisers with bad-ass names like Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). With less than a month to go until the film arrives in theaters, a new trailer hit the web today showing off the united Birds of Prey crew and the team of bad dudes they’re going to be taking down. (Watch the trailer above.)
The Harley-narrated teaser opens with her... um, explosive break-up with “Mr. J,” which involves her steering a truck straight into an Ace Chemical plant — the place responsible for his extreme makeover — blasting it to smithereens. There’s no on-screen proof of death, but that hasn’t stopped Twitter from effectively burying Leto’s Joker without any “RIP” messages. For the record, Robbie has confirmed that Leto won’t be in Birds of Prey, and the fact that the actor reportedly ripped Warner Bros. for releasing Phoenix’s Joker and has since joined Sony’s Spider-verse with this summer’s Morbius suggests he’s given up being the Clown Prince of Crime in favor of a career as a Living Vampire.
When the Birds of Prey trailer opened with Harley Quinn straight up murdering Jared Leto's Joker by plowing him into a chemical plant to explode... pic.twitter.com/PNIjfFtJoT
— Meghan O’Keefe (@megsokay) January 9, 2020
PRAYER CIRCLES TO ALL GOD'S AND WARNER BROTHERS THAT JARED LETO'S JOKER IS FINALLY DEAD. THANK YOU HARLEY QUINN #birdsofprey pic.twitter.com/4iJABpXhwR
— duh (@HeyItsAnshhere) January 9, 2020
They killed Jared Leto’s Joker 💀💀💀 #BirdsOfPrey https://t.co/AeHPhUfbEl
— 🏳??🌈 Eggman Stan Account (@xenosylveon) January 9, 2020
The meta humor behind Harley flat out blowing up Jared Leto's Joker is amazing 😂 #BirdsofPrey https://t.co/V2I32TJbdC
— Jeffrey Pawlak (@JeffreyPavs) January 9, 2020
Wait, did the #BirdsOfPrey trailer insinuate that Harley killed Leto's Joker?
Because i would LOVE that for all of us.— #ProsecuteRihanna // IG: jefmphotography (@SpikeGhost) January 9, 2020
Loving the #BirdsOfPrey trailer. For those who missed it, here's how we had #HarleyQuinn deal with The Joker in #DCeased. pic.twitter.com/g0jf3YY8hK
— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) January 9, 2020
The newly single Harley quickly proves a magnet for other Gotham City criminal types, including Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), who is finally seen modeling the black mask that gives him his supervillain name.
Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis / Black Mask is looking DOPE!!!! 😍#BirdsOfPrey pic.twitter.com/JADPc3tCNQ
— Gabriel Robbie Vikander (@GabrielVikander) January 9, 2020
Our first look at Roman Sionis becoming #BlackMask! #BirdsOfPrey pic.twitter.com/Kh81bjwrVm
— Ewan McGregor Daily (@EwanDaily) January 9, 2020
There he is. Black Mask. #BirdsOfPrey pic.twitter.com/iCX9r0Sj9C
— Films to Films (@FilmstoFilms_) January 9, 2020
Black Mask also has beef with each one of Harley’s new allies, which leads to the formation of the titular super group. And it’s a good thing that the Birds of Prey are protecting Gotham’s streets, because the city’s Dark Knight is MIA, presumably undergoing his metamorphosis from Ben Affleck to Robert Pattinson. On the other hand, Bruce Wayne is in the movie... kind of: Harley names her pet hyena Bruce after “that hunky Wayne guy.”
The latest trailer was simply excellent.
Also, while we may not have Ben Affleck back as Bruce Wayne, we have Bruce the hyena, and that's alright. #BirdsOfPrey— The Golden God (@MustacheBlood) January 9, 2020
This is now Head Canon. #BirdsOfPrey
Bruce Wayne said this to #HarleyQuinn one time and that’s why she named one of her Hyenas after him 😍 pic.twitter.com/pPXRx4gfQ5— John Aaron Garza 🦅🌙 (@Ser_Jon_Arryn) January 9, 2020
#BirdsOfPrey
Batman: Alfred I tell you I go for a couple of years and they name a hyena after me
Alfred: Well he is cute and laughs
Batman: pic.twitter.com/aVlpc601Tt— M Salman Saqib (S@llu) (@EngrMSSQ) January 9, 2020
Nice to see that the Cupid of Crime gets the last laugh.
Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) opens in theaters on Feb. 7.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: