Jurnee Smollett is set to reprise her role as Dinah Lance, also known as Black Canary, in her own titular solo film. The film is being developed for the HBO Max platform and will be written by Misha Green.
The actress confirmed the news on her Twitter account by announcing “Guess the Canary is out of the cage! So excited to finally embark on this adventure with my creative soul sis @MishaGreen. #blackcanary #dinahlance #lettttssssssgoooooo ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!”
Smollet starred as Black Canary in the 2020 film “Bird of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn,” directed by Cathy Yan. In the film, Dinah Lance is portrayed as a singer, and later driver, employed at a nightclub owned by Black Mask, portrayed by Ewan McGregor. Lance saves Harley Quinn, portrayed by Margot Robbie, and ultimately teams up with her against Black Mask. The film showcases in the final battle her metahuman ability called the “canary cry”, in which she makes an ultrasonic scream.
This is not the first time Smollett and Green have collaborated. They previously worked on the 2020 series “Lovecraft Country” on HBO which was based on a novel of the same name. Previously, Green had cast Smollett in the show “Underground,” which tells a story about the Underground Railroad, a network in which many African American slaves used to escape to the free states and Canada.
According to an article in Variety from last year, Smollett and Green expressed interest in an opportunity to collaborate together on a Black Canary project.
“It’s no secret how much I love Black Canary. It’s a dream character and it was a dream to play her,” Smollet said during the Variety interview. “If [the] dynamics fell in the right way, I would absolutely do it in a heartbeat, and Lord knows, I follow Misha wherever she leads me.”
In the same interview, Green added that she would jump at the opportunity to work on a project centered on the superheroine.
“I mean, you can’t help but imagine it a little bit… like, ‘What would I do with a Black Canary show?’” said Green. “It’d be exciting, I know that.”
In an ironic twist, Green and Smollet would play the DC Comics fighting game, “Injustice 2” in which the former would often play Black Canary to win against the latter.
“And I just would just do the ‘canary scream’ to win all the time, which would frustrate [Jurnee],” Green recalled in the Variety article. “So, it was like, ‘It’s kind of kismet and funny that you’re now Black Canary because I was using that character to beat you with this game.’”
A fan noted that it was Misha Green who encouraged Jurnee Smolett to audition for the role of Black Canary, and now they will get to collaborate on the role for a solo film.
On social media, Misha Green tweeted “We’re just at the very beginning of a loooong journey to the screen, but obvs I couldn’t turn down the chance to put the DAMN in The Black Damn Canary with @jurneesmollett ! *whispers* so I’m thinking something like:” followed by a series of emojis and the hashtag #BlackCanary, and fans are already trying to interpret the emojis as clues for what the story might include. Many fans are interpreting the green heart emoji to mean Green Arrow, the alter ego of Oliver Queen, will be in the film and discussing who could be cast for the role.
The news of the “Black Canary” film comes after the announcement of the upcoming “Batgirl,” “Blue Beetle,” “Peacemaker,” “Static Shock,” and “Superman” projects being in the works.
There are currently no details as to when the “Black Canary” solo film will be scheduled to premiere.
