Why Gotham City Sirens Should Have a Female Director

Suicide Squad Harley Quinn

In case you’ve been living under a rock, news has been out for months that Margot Robbie has been looking to revive her character of Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad in a more solo-ish film, and that film has recently been given a name, Gotham City Sirens. The film will focus on a trio of female Batman villains, specifically Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy, and is likely to be based on a DC graphic novel of the same name.

This is thrilling news. Margot Robbie was the best thing about Suicide Squad (and I dare anyone to tell me otherwise) in a film that wasn’t very good (but still managed to do great at the box office). However, many are already hesitant to get excited about the film because David Ayer, the director of Suicide Squad, has signed on to direct once again.

Now let’s clear something up. Suicide Squad was bad for a lot of reasons, and all the blame can’t be placed solely on the director. The script wasn’t very good, and who knows what pressure the producers were placing on Ayer to make the film feel or look a certain way. Ayer’s directed good films in the past, so let’s cut the guy some slack. Everyone’s allowed one or two flops in their career, it’s unfortunate for DC that all of their films of late seem to be misses, but hey, something’s got to go right eventually. For all we know, Ayer’s Gotham City Sirens could be great, it could be phenomenal, it could be just what DC needs to pick things up and get back on their feet. But Ayer’s directorial efforts on Suicide Squad aren’t the reason I don’t think he should direct this new film. The reason I don’t think he should direct this new film is because he’s a man.

Suicide Squad

Hear me out. I promise I’m not a man hater. I’m a man, for crying out loud. But there’s a problem in Hollywood and it needs to be addressed. Did you know that only 7% of the top 250 films in 2016 were directed by women (according to the Center for Study of Women in Television and Film)? Crazy, right? It’s even crazier when you compare that number to the year before, and see that the number of female directors is going down. That’s right, down.

Now, to be fair, the way women have been represented in big films recently has been getting better. Think of Rey and Jyn from Star Wars. Great, strong female characters. Both in films directed by men. Not that men can’t make films about women. But one of the reasons most big, action films star men is because men know how to make movies about men. So it’s only natural that a woman would know how to make a film about women, better than a man would. See my point? Once more women start to pick up big directing jobs, then naturally more films about women will start to get made, and things will start to even out a bit. But it all starts with female directors.

DC has already proven itself to be a leader in female action films. Wonder Woman, the first superhero movie with a female lead is scheduled to be released in June. And oh yeah, it has a female director, Patty Jenkins. Look her up. That’s a big step forward. So why is Gotham City Sirens, a film about three women, being directed by a man? It seems like a step backwards, doesn’t it?

One good thing about Gotham City Sirens is that it is being written by a woman, Geneva Robertson-Dworet. She’s also been tasked with writing the third Sherlock Holmes film and the Tomb Raider reboot, neither of which have come out yet, so I can’t say anything about her writing, but it seems she’s getting a lot of work on some high budget films so she must be good. Female screenwriters also need more gigs, but even they have it a little better than directors.

Obviously at the end of the day, the decision isn’t up to me. I’m just a fan. Maybe there’s a good reason for re-hiring Ayer. Maybe he and Margot Robbie really hit it off and she personally asked him to direct. She’s the one spearheading the project, so I assume this had to be what she wanted. And part of me would like to see him stick the landing on another DC film. But a bigger part of me wants to see a female direct this movie. If we don’t start giving women directing jobs, nothing is going to change. That’s what I want. What do you think? Comment below!

Gotham City Sirens has not yet announced any casting besides Robbie and does not yet have a release date.

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