Birds of Prey: Breaking down the latest casting rumors

Black Canary 

Early character breakdowns gave us a glimpse at what they wanted for Black Canary. They were allegedly looking for an actress who could sing. Moreoever, it appears that Hamada and Warner Bros. are adhering to Margot Robbie’s request to diversify the cast. 

In DC Comics, Black Canary is depicted as a white woman with blonde hair. That’s not the case for the Birds of Prey film.  In fact, the two actresses either being considered or vying for the role of Black Canary aka Dinah Lance are Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. 

Smollett-Bell is a well-established actress in Hollywood who transitioned from a child star to a legit adult actress. As a child, Smollett-Bell appeared on Full House and Cosby. But she made a name for herself as a great actress alongside Denzel Washington in The Great Debaters and Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor. If you want to see a glimpse of why she’s perfect for Black Canary check her out in True Blood.

As Nicole, she’s a hero in her own right who wants to protect members of the supernatural world. Like her brother Jussie Smollett from Power, she’s known to carry a tune herself. 

Nevertheless, our choice to land the role is Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Maybe it’s biased considering she made our list of actresses we’d like to see play Black Canary  Still, there’s no denying the immense talent Mbatha-Raw possesses. Her claim to fame was in the critically acclaimed British film Belle. Mbatha-Raw brought that brilliance to America with critically acclaimed roles in Beyond the Lights where she played a pop-star Noni Jean. Additionally, she held her own co-starring in Concussion with Will Smith and Jessica Chastain in Miss Sloane.

The British actress can do no wrong, as she even voiced the Featherduster in Beauty and the Beast and made The Cloverfield Paradox worth watching. Oh and she can sing, in fact, she was brought in musical theater. We can only imagine what she’d bring to the role of Black Canary.