With most of the main roles around Margot Robbie's next turn as Harley Quinn in Birds Of Prey, the latest piece of casting news revolves around someone who is a little newer to the acting scene. Ella Jay Basco will play Cassandra Cain.
Cathy Yan is directing the film, written by Christina Hodson, which adapts from the comicbook title. The story sees Robbie's Quinn, Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Huntress and Jurnee Smollett-Bell's Black Canary teaming up to protect Basco's Cain from the machinations of Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). Rosie Perez will also be part of the narrative, playing Detective Renee Montoya.
Cain in the comics is the daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva, and is deprived of speech and human contact during her childhood as conditioning to become the world’s greatest assassin. She eventually befriends Bruce Wayne and goes on to become Batgirl. As for the DCEU, there's no indication as to whether this means Basco will actually go on to play Batgirl, assuming that film finally comes together. The actress has mostly had guest roles on US TV shows including Grey's Anatomy and Veep, and this will mark a big break for her.
Birds Of Prey plans to swoop into US cinemas on 7 February 2020, and while there's no official word on a UK date, we'd imagine it'll either arrive the same day or close to it.
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.