Jurnee Smollett-Bell Black Canary Birds Of Prey And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn

Jurnee Smollett-Bell was announced as playing Black Canary in ‘Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)’ last September, and she made her costumed debut in a short promotional video released last week.  But that clip was very short and very quickly edited so that only tiny glimpses of the cast could be seen without hitting pause.  However, the video was released to announce that the DC Comics movie had begun filming and now some set photos have captured Smollett-Bell in costume and you can get a better look at this new take on the super siren.

These pictures come thanks to the Birds of Prey Twitter account:

Black Canary has been reinvented many times in the comics in order to keep up with the times.  Originally, she was Dinah Drake, a florist who was in love with a Private Eye named Larry Lance and who would don a disguise in order to solve crimes and rescue Larry whenever he found himself in a bind.  She served with both the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America.  While in the JLA, she began a long-running romance with Green Arrow.  When fans began to wonder why she was so young when she had debuted as a superhero in the 1940s, her history was revised so that the Black Canary in the Justice Society was the mother of the hero in the Justice League.  The biggest difference between the two was that the daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, had a supersonic “Canary Cry” powerful enough to pulverize the side of a mountain.

In the 1990s, Black Canary began working with the mysterious computer ace Oracle.  Together they were known as the ‘Birds of Prey’, which eventually led to this movie being made.

Also starring in the ‘Birds of Prey’ film are Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, Ewan McGregor as Black Mask, Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as The Huntress.

The film opens on February 7, 2020.