Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) may not come out until 2020, but we’re already aboard the hype train!

I have been excited about the Birds of Prey movie ever since it was announced, and every piece of news we’ve had since then — from the casting, to the crew, to, yes, that insane (and insanely long) title — has only made me more excited.

Since I knew that the movie started production around the start of the year, I have been (not so) patiently waiting for a glimpse of the characters.

And Cathy Yan and the team over at WB saw fit to grant my wish.

On Monday, we were treated with a short teaser (also, costume test?) for Birds of Prey, which didn’t give us any hints as to the plot, but officially introduced us to the characters and the general aesthetic.

So, with the hype train fully chugging along and with production well underway, here’s what we know so far about the DCEU’s girl gang extravaganza.

About the creatives and crew

I know everyone is excited about the cast — and rightfully so — but I want to take a moment to bring attention to and shout-out the amazing creative team and crew of this movie.

Director Cathy Yan breaks new ground as the first Asian-American woman to helm a comic book movie. This will be her first blockbuster film, but her directorial debut, Dead Pigs, premiered at Sundance last year and was well-received by critics and audiences.

Writer Christina Hodson likewise impressed critics and audiences alike with her script for Bumblebee this last year, and apparently impressed WB so much that they gave her both Birds of Prey and Batgirl to script.

In lesser appreciated but no less important roles, we have Matthew Libatique as the cinematographer, whose better known films have been Black Swan and A Star is Born.

Finally, we have Jon Valera as the fight coordinator, and this is one that has me so incredibly hyped. The rumor is that Birds of Prey will be much lower budgeted than previous DCEU films while also having an R-rating. With that in mind, Jon Valera — fight coordinator for Atomic Blonde and John Wick — seems like the perfect match. I can’t wait to see all these ladies kicking series ass on screen.

Finally, I want to say that I didn’t intentionally pick all crew members who were Asian-American or mixed Asian — I really just picked members of the crew I was amped about. But I will say that I’m incredibly excited about the fact that so many people in front of and behind the camera will be people of color.

August 2018 might have been “Asian August” but thanks to the DCEU, we’re keeping it going well into 2019.

About the Birds of Prey

Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah Lance/Black Canary

The most recent iteration of Dinah Lance’s Black Canary is as a crime-fighting rockstar, and given what we’ve seen in this brief teaser, that seems to be the version we’ll be getting in Birds of Prey. Audiences will likely be most familiar with Black Canary, either from the CW’s Arrow (where she is forever criminally underused and abused by the storyline) or the many DC Animated shows in which she’s been featured.

But no matter the version, Dinah Lance always kicks a lot of ass in hand-to-hand combat, takes no shit and uses her “Canary Cry” — a supersonic scream — to completely lay out bad guys. I am ready and willing to dedicate my whole entire life to Jurnee Smollet-Bell’s take on the character and can’t wait to see her on the big screen!

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress

One of the three founding members of the Birds of Prey (the other two being Black Canary and the original Batgirl, Barbara Gordon) Helena Bertinelli is one of the many masked vigilantes that run around Gotham, but she’s not ever been counted among Batman’s favorites.

As the daughter of a crime boss who witnessed her family’s brutal murder at the hands of a rival gang, Helena has a pretty big chip on her shoulder (along with a whole lot of trauma — par for the course for most Gotham vigilantes). This manifests itself in a penchant for violence, vengeance and a willingness to murder that often puts her at odds with Batman.

Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya/The Question

Renee Montoya is a detective in Gotham’s police department and one of the few honest members of the police force. Starting out as a cop in the Major Crimes Unit, she’s eventually promoted to detective, where she is partnered with frequent Batman skeptic, Harvey Bullock.

She’s had a rather rough go of it in the comics — at one time outed as a lesbian and resigning from the police force and going on to become an alcoholic. In more recent timelines, she has inherited the mantle of The Question — a costumed superhero detective who wears a mask with no face — from Vic Sage.

Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain/Batgirl (V3)/Orphan

I was over the moon when I heard that Cassandra Cain would be in this movie, as the third individual to hold the mantle of Batgirl holds a very special place in my heart. They’ve aged her down quite a bit, so I’m not sure how much of her backstory Birds of Prey will keep.

In the comics, Cassandra Cain is the daughter of assassin David Cain and arguably one of the — if not the — best martial artists in the DC universe, Lady Shiva. Brutally raised by her father to become the perfect assassin, she was deprived of human contact and speech so as to be able to “read” the movements and body language of her opponents to the point where it seems as though she is predicting their every move.

This makes her one of the most skilled and dangerous fighters in the all of DC comics, and her skill is highly touted by all members of the Bat-family. However, due to her cruel upbringing, she is initially mute, illiterate and severely socially underdeveloped. This changes over time due to her interaction with Batman and the rest of the Bat-family, and if this backstory is the one they include in Birds of Prey, I hope her demeanor, too, changes during the course of the film.

About the villains

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn

I put Harley in with the villains even though it looks like she’ll be part of the Birds of Prey team-up — or at least is a catalyst in them coming together. Comics purists may be a little bit angry (just kidding, comics purists are never just a little bit angry) at the fact that the comics-accurate Birds of Prey team has little to nothing to do with Harley Quinn, but I can’t find it in me to be too angry about it because WE ARE GETTING A BIRDS OF PREY MOVIE Y’ALL.

Last seen in the DCEU’s Suicide Squad, Harley is the longtime girlfriend of the Joker and is often overshadowed by his pure sadistic insanity. However, in recent iterations of the character, she’s kicked his abusive ass to the curb, is in a healthy relationship with Poison Ivy and skirts the line between villain and anti-hero.

It seems like that’s the angle we’ll get here, especially since Christina Hodson stated that “she doesn’t have to be in anyone’s shadow” and is “excited to see Harley stand on her own and be her own thing.”

Christopher Messina as Victor Zsasz

If you’ve watched Fox’s Gotham at all, then you’re at least a little bit familiar with Victor Zsasz (played on that show by the charismatic and versatile Anthony Carrigan). A deranged serial killer who is, of course, part of Batman’s rogues gallery, Zsasz is most known for carving a tally mark for each of his victims on his body — which is covered head to toe with tally marks.

Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis/Black Mask

Think of Roman Sionis as sort of a dark, funhouse mirror version of Bruce Wayne. They both occupy the top 1% in terms of wealth, suffered from the absence of their parents (though Roman’s was figurative to Bruce’s literal) and obsessively dedicate their time and money towards their goal. But whereas Bruce Wayne’s goal is to save the city of Gotham, Roman’s is to control it — through criminal means, of course.

Still, they’re both the same level of extra. While Bruce Wayne took the animal which he feared the most and it his entire motif, Roman Sionis took his symbol from the thing which he hated most — his mask is made from the ebony of his father’s coffin.