Earlier this week, it was announced that Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) has been cast as the Huntress for Warner Bros. and DC Films’ female superhero team-up Birds of Prey.
Starring alongside Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary and Margot Robbie reprising her Suicide Squad role of Harley Quinn, Winstead’s Huntress is a Gotham City vigilante and member of the female team Birds of Prey. While promoting her latest film All About Nina, Winstead spoke to TheWrap about her excitement for the film and the physical training she’ll have to undergo, specifically with a bow and arrow as Huntress primarily uses crossbows as her weapons.
“I’ll be learning how to shoot a bow and arrow — which is new for me,” she said. “It’s really exciting, and even the process of going through getting the role and everything was a very different experience than I’ve typically been through. Being with the other actresses and a female director and just the whole energy behind this is so unique, so I’m really happy about that.”
Huntress’ real name is Helena Berinelli, also known as The Huntress. Created by writer Joey Cavalieri and artist Joe Staton in 1989, Bertinelli is the third DC Comics character to use the name Huntress. Once a mafia princess whose family was killed in a mob hit, she eventually becomes a vigilante bent on taking down the mob in the name of justice. She was created writer and artist Joey Cavalieri and Joe Stanton respectively in the 1989 The Huntress comic series as a new version of the character following DC’s reboot from Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then, she has become a very popular character and has appeared in the Justice League Unlimited animated series as well as two live-action appearances in the short-lived Birds of Prey television series and The CW’s Arrow in its early seasons.
Winstead also spoke about what initially drew her to the project, saying “I can’t say that I was a huge comic book reader, but when I met with Cathy Yan, who’s directing the film, and learned kind of the back story of the character, I was really interested. It’s a really strong, kind of emotional place to start from for a superhero character.”
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Yan is directing Birds of Prey from a script written by Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson (who is also set to write a solo Batgirl film) and it is set for release on February 7th, 2020.
Birds of Prey is set for release on February 7th 2020.
