Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell spent months side by side filming their new fantasy romance, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. But here’s the kicker: all that time together, and not once did they bring up the fact that they’ve both played some of Gotham’s most notorious villains.
That realization didn’t hit them until a recent Entertainment Weekly interview for their upcoming movie. In it, they play two strangers whose lives intersect on a wild adventure.
Margot Robbie leaves Colin Farrell shocked
Robbie suddenly turned to Farrell and asked, “Did we ever talk about Harley and the Penguin?” He shook his head, “I don’t believe so.” They both started laughing, realizing how odd that was.
“We’ve talked endlessly, but I don’t think it ever came up,” Robbie said, almost surprised. “That’s so weird.”
Farrell started to say their characters lived in separate universes and multiverses, but before he could finish, Robbie jumped in with a bit of trivia: in the very first draft of Birds of Prey, the villain wasn’t Black Mask, it was the Penguin.
“The first draft that Christina [Hodson] wrote of Birds of Prey, the villain was the Penguin,” she told Farrell.
Farrell’s jaw practically hit the floor. “No way! Really?”
Matt Reeves asked not to use The Penguin
Robbie explained that director Matt Reeves stepped in and said, “Don’t use the Penguin. I’m going to use him in my thing.” So they swapped out Penguin for Black Mask, who ended up being played by Ewan McGregor.
Farrell was fascinated. “Wow! And how was her Penguin?” he wanted to know.
Robbie just grinned and said it was “amazing.” Farrell, clearly hooked, asked if she still had that script. She nodded and promised to send it over. He lit up and told her, “I’d love to read it. That’d be fascinating.”
For a little background: Margot Robbie jumped into the DC universe as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, back in 2016’s Suicide Squad.
She kept the role going in Birds of Prey (2020) and The Suicide Squad (2021). As for whether she’ll reprise the part? DC Studios’ new co-head, James Gunn, recently said her fate in the new rebooted universe “will be revealed down the line.”
On the other hand, Farrell made his Penguin debut in Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022), and went on to headline HBO’s The Penguin in 2024.
No one’s quite sure what comes next for his version of the character, but one thing’s clear: Farrell will be back as the Penguin alongside Robert Pattinson in the long-awaited The Batman Part II.
