DC Films offered up female heroes and villains during the Warner Bros. CinemaCon presentation on Tuesday.
The studio showed footage from and interviews with the stars of “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” two of its most highly anticipated comic book films. “Birds of Prey” focuses on Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, the psychotic Joker groupie first seen in “Suicide Squad” as she forms an alliance with the Birds of Prey, a group of XX-chromosomed urban warriors.
“This is not Batman’s Gotham. It’s a scrappier Gotham,” the cast promised in a pre-recorded interview.
Rosie Perez, who portrays the cop Renee Montoya in “Birds of Prey,” vowed, “We are not pulling any punches whatsoever.”
Of the unwieldy moniker, Robbie quipped, “I love long titles. It’s bat-s–t crazy.”
The studio also unveiled footage of “Wonder Woman 1984,” showing Gal Gadot’s Princess Diana at the height of her abilities.
The clip showed Wonder Woman arm-in-arm with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), Diana’s love interest who was presumed to have died in a plane explosion at the end of the first movie, as the two walk by monuments in Washington.
Later in the trailer, Wonder Woman lassoes a couple of baddies in the Reagan-era mall as she jumps over a balcony.
The new footage also features Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah, who becomes a nemesis of Wonder Woman.
“This is a story we are very excited about,” Patty Jenkins said in a pre-recorded clip. “Diana is now in her full powers.”
“Wonder Woman,” DC’s first standalone adventure to put the spotlight on a female heroine, became a cultural touchstone, reaffirming the notion that female superheroes can pull in audiences. The movie became a massive box office success, grossing over $820 million worldwide.
“It makes me want to go harder to do something even more special,” Gadot said in footage provided by the studio.