How did the short-lived Birds Of Prey TV show from the early 2000s compare with the 2020 movie? Although it’s hard to believe now, the Batman movie franchise was in rough shape around the start of the millennium. The critical and commercial reception to 1997’s Batman & Robin stalled the franchise, and the studio had trouble deciding how to move forward. A direct sequel dubbed Batman Unchained that would have featured Harley Quinn and The Scarecrow as villains was cancelled, while an adaptation of Batman Beyond or a reboot directed by Darren Aronofsky were options they considered.

Of course, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins is the path the studio choose, which turned out to be the best option. Superhero shows were relatively rare in the early 2000s, with Smallville being one of the rare success stories. A Birds Of Prey series arrived in 2002 on The CW and starred Ashley Scott, Dina Meyer and Rachel Skarsten. This take remixed elements from the comics and movies like Batman Returns and saw the titular team of superheroes protecting New Gotham City years after Bruce Wayne/Batman retired.

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Birds Of Prey has attracted a cult despite being a flawed series, which only ran for one season. In 2020 a Birds Of Prey movie arrived from the DC Extended Universe. This Cathy Yan directed project saw Margot Robbie reprise the role of Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad, but while the show and film share some of the same characters, they’re markedly different from one another.

Harley Quinn is the main character in the Birds Of Prey movie, and it revolves around the character making a name for herself after breaking up with the Joker. On the flipside, Mia Sara plays the character in the series, who appears to be a respected psychiatrist but not only was she in a relationship with Joker before his defeat, she serves as the main villain. The series is mostly focused on Ashley Scott’s Huntress, AKA Helena Kyle. In this take, Helena is the daughter of Catwoman and Batman and inherited feline-like abilities from her deceased mother, and she handles the fieldwork of the group.

In the Birds Of Prey movie, Harley is allied with Helena Bertinelli / Huntress (Mary Elisabeth Winstead), Dinah Lance / Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). The latter two characters are absent from the series, while Helena is an orphaned assassin with no superpowers who seeks revenge on Black Mask. The show’s take on Black Canary is a runaway teenager with metahuman abilities that include telekinesis, while the movie’s Dinah is a nightclub singer and police informant who later helps protect Cassandra from Black Mask in the finale, including using the character’s supersonic cry.

One major character from the Birds Of Prey show missing from the movie is Barbara Gordon, AKA Oracle. Like the comics, Barbara was once Batgirl but later became paralyzed after being shot by the Joker. As Oracle, she handles the logistics and tech side of the team and works out of a clocktower. The tones of the Birds Of Prey show and film are quite different too. The movie is R-rated and features some brutal violence, though it features a colorful sense of humor. The show could be quite cartoony and cheesy and featured more outlandish villains like Clayface. One character almost entirely absent from both incarnations of Birds Of Prey is Batman, who makes brief, silent flashback cameos on the show and makes no appearance in the 2020 movie.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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