Birds Of Prey Movie: Fan-Casting Every Major Role

1. Spy Smasher - Jessica Chastain

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There are over two decades' worth of BOP stories to choose from when it comes to adapting the group to a different medium, but it's likely that Gail Simone's run will form the bulk of inspiration. It's the team's most famous, most popular and most acclaimed material, and while it remains to be seen how Harley Quinn will feature, or what kind of antagonists will feature, there is one character who managed to shake the Birds of Prey up in a really interesting way.

The character in question is Spy Smasher, or rather the character's 2007 self. Going by the name of Katarina Armstrong, the 'Smasher' is a government agent affiliated with dozens of global law enforcement and espionage agencies. Having seen the way the Birds of Prey operate, Katarini forces the group to work for her, going so far as to unseat Barbara Gordon from the team and bring them to the point of destruction.

Inspired by Lady Blackhawk and Black Canary, the team lead an insurrection against their new leader in order to reinstate Babs as their commander in chief. It's a really great arc, and with Jessica Chastain having played a Spook in Zero Dark Thirty, it's a role the actor could handle with ease.

Who do you want to see in Birds of Prey? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.