Ewan McGregor has joined the cast of Harley Quinn Spinoff, Birds of Prey, as the notorious Batman villain Black Mask. Stemming from an earlier report from Deadline, McGregor is attached to the film as Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask the infamous crime lord of Gotham City.
Ewan McGregor joins opposite the already star-studded cast which includes fan-favorite Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Harley will be teaming up alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Huntress and Jurnee Smollet-Bell’s Black Canary as the Birds of Prey who will be taking on McGregors Black Mask in the film.
Roman Sionis made his first appearance in the Batman comics issues #386 in 1985. The longtime villain gets his origin story in the form of being born to rich and wealthy parents that have an attraction towards maintaining a high social standing. Sionis in his childhood is often forced to cover up stories that could affect his family socially, such as when he was attacked by a rabid raccoon. The family goes as far as forcing Roman to become friends with a young Bruce Wayne as they want to maintain a good relationship with the Wayne family. Sick of the hypocrisy and ‘Mask’ his parents put on to get acceptance from society, Roman eventually burns his parents to a crisp when they don’t approve of his relationship.
Roman takes over his family business and without the keen business acumen, he quickly runs the company into the ground. Sparked by embarrassment, Roman goes to his parents grave where lightning strikes and hurls him into his father’s casket, breaking the ebony stone. Using the stone, Sionis pieces together his mask and rebirths as crime lord Black Mask.
Black Mask is a character that gets very little shine in the public masses, with only ever making small appearances in Batman animation or video games. Ewan McGregor looks to break this by bringing the eccentric villain to light in his interpretation for the spinoff DC flick. With no clear interpretation of the character on screen, it will be great to see what the remarkable Ewan McGregor will do with the role and how he shall bring Roman to life.
Birds of Prey hits theaters on February 7, 2020.
