Ewan McGregor playing Black Mask in Birds of Prey could make for a much more violent movie

A cool foil to Harley Quinn

The coolest part about adapting lesser-known superheroes and superhero groups into movies is letting audiences peek into the rabbit hole of comic book villains. As a teen, I read through the entire DC encyclopedia of heroes and villains, and was astounded at the creativity (re: insanity) writers came up with. Egg Fu, Crazy Quilt, Condiment King, and many more are so inventive. Now older, I realize most of these villains were probably thought up when someone at DC had writer’s block while in their kitchen. There are still some gems though, like Black Mask who is thankfully coming to the Birds of Prey adaptation!

Even more exciting than Black Mask being confirmed in the upcoming Birds of Prey movie is that Ewan McGregor, of having one of the best accents ever fame, will be playing him. Having most recently played a grown-up Christopher Robin in the movie of the same name, this will be quite a change of pace for the Scot as he’ll be portraying one of the most sadistic villains in all of Batman lore. Created during the ’80s, the dawn of “dark and edgy” in comics, Black Mask loves all things violent, sadism and torture. He also looks really really mean.

I enjoy seeing the lesser explored villains given a chance because that allows the screenwriters to mold a villain that not many people have seen or have expectations about. Additionally, it could be a really cool juxtaposition of Harley Quinn’s quirky sadism compared to the more traditional but much more extreme methods Black Mask can be known for. Of course, this is still DC, the biggest caveat in movies outside of the Dark Universe, so you shouldn’t be too excited, but you can certainly let your imagination run wild before Birds of Prey arrives in 2020 to grind any hope you had into dust. Maybe Black Mask is executive producing as well.

Ewan McGregor to Play Batman Villain Black Mask in ‘Birds of Prey’ [The Hollywood Reporter]