'Birds Of Prey' Trailer Breakdown: Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn Is "Emancipated" From The Joker

The Birds of Prey trailer has dropped, and it's absolutely fantabulous. Margot Robbie reprises her role as Harley Quinn after she stole the show in 2016's Suicide Squad. Now she's emancipated from that abysmal movie and her toxic relationship with the Joker in Birds of Prey.

With a new girl gang by her side and a host of colorful, much more comfortable costumes, Harley Quinn is ready to take Gotham by storm. But she and fellow female vigilantes Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) first must face one of the city's most formidable crime lords, Black Mask (Ewan McGregor).

See our Birds of Prey trailer breakdown below.

The trailer opens upon the cityscape, with Harley Quinn confidently strutting down the street with her new sidekick Cassandra Cain. But as the purple neon lights in the foreground seem to suggest, the specter of the Joker still follows her.

We're introduced to our first members of the Birds of Prey, a team that in the comics traditionally consisted of all-female superheroes like Black Canary, Oracle, and Huntress. While Oracle (née Batgirl) won't be showing up in this film, we get our first glimpse at one of the original members, Smollett-Bell's Black Canary, singing at a nightclub with some illuminating decor (it's the eyes. Look at the eyes).

We get an introduction to a woman in prayer at a small church. At first I thought this was Renee Montoya (Perez), but as she has straight hair and appears in a later shot, perhaps not.

"You know what a harlequin is?" Harley cynically rambles to Black Canary while they commiserate at a bar. "A harlequin's role is to serve. It's nothing without a master. And no one gives two s***s who we are beyond that." It appears that Black Canary is a dissatisfied hired grunt for...someone.

Harley Quinn is cutting ties with her past — literally. Harley chops off the pink and blue-tipped hair that was a major part in her "harlequin" costume in favor of a shorter cut. And it's a fun play off of women who cut their hair after a break-up.

Yes, Harley and the Joker are officially broken up, Harley says. And she's looking for a fresh start. Harley doesn't seem to have any love left for the psychotic clown, making a dagger-throwing target out of him on her bedroom wall. Though it looks like she didn't bother to draw his "DAMAGED" tattoo.

We get a silhouette introduction to Renee Montoya, who is investigating a mysterious fire. The Gotham Police Department detective is not traditionally a member of the Birds of Prey either, though she is a recent Gotham staple who is most frequently associated with Batwoman. But what is the building that caught fire? Could it be Arkham Asylum? Harley's old prison? Harley's very cute apartment?

We get our first glimpse at Ewan McGregor's Black Mask watching Black Canary perform, with a strange rack focus on a martini glass full of olives.

Looks like the investigation into the fire did not go well, as Renee Montoya is seen packing up her desk and leaving her job at Gotham PD. Perhaps she uncovered a city-wide cover-up and evidence of corruption — which would make sense considering Black Mask is an infamous crime lord.

Our first shot of Huntress (Winstead) comes with her trusty crossbow, which she seems to be wielding at Harley, or at least at someone just past Harley.

Harley looks ready to party, not fight. But who is she reluctantly fighting in the alleyway where Huntress can be seen sitting on her motorcycle in the background? One of the Black Mask's henchmen, probably.

If we were wondering why Black Mask was such a sinister foe, this shot confirms it. He has kidnapped and strung up several women, including what looks to be the woman who was praying at the church. Perhaps that woman has a connection to one of the Birds of Prey, starting the heroes on the mission to take down the Black Mask.

The Black Mask consults with his henchman Victor Zsasz (a bleach-blonde Chris Messina), who in the comics is a deranged serial killer who carves a tally mark on his skin for each victim he claims. He's appeared once before in a cameo in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, but this is our first proper introduction to the Batman rogue. They're talking seriously in front of a (very fashionable) woman who Black Mask refers to as a "queen." "She bribes me," he growls to Zsasz.

Harley and her hyena! In Batman the Animated Series and her comic book appearances, Harley has two loyal hyenas named Bud and Lou (after Abbott and Costello), but mostly referred to by Harley as her "babies." But in Birds of Prey, it seems like Harley can only afford one hyena, although she spoils it with a bedazzled pink collar and a Twizzler.

I'm going to call this shirt Harley's plot shirt. Because a whole lot of plot seems to be happening in the shots where Harley is wearing this shirt, which is amusingly branded with her own name. Dripping wet and guarding a scared Cassandra Cain (Basco) in some nameless storage room, she petulantly asks the goons in front of her who they are, before they begin shooting at her. Cassandra in the comics is an assassin who becomes Batgirl. Her character seems to be the most changed from her comic book counterpart, and just seems like an ordinary girl caught up in Harley's problems.

Harley's lost her cool branded shirt, but her pink sports bra is still as recognizable as ever. She's been captured by Black Mask and his minions, who have her holed up at his nightclub, with the creepy eye-and-hands decor looking down at the scene.

A rare moment of vulnerability for our villain, we see Black Mask having a breakdown. There is a nice bit of ominous imagery in this shot: Black Mask stands in front of a wall between two painted figures — one whose head is completely covered in back, with only the red eyes and lips peeking through; and another white figure with black rope around its neck. The figure to the left is a nice nod to the traditional appearance of Black Mask, which is a skull-like all-black face with glowing red eyes.

Harley and Cassandra enter a creepy abandoned circus attraction that is either Harley's old base with the Joker, or their new living space. Or it could be the enemy's lair, though it wouldn't be likely that they would enter alone and without back-up.

I don't have a reason for this shot, I just wanted to look at blonde Chris Messina.

The plot shirt returns! Harley seems to have been hit with a dart and is slipping out of consciousness. This might be a glimpse of Harley's capture by Black Mask, leading to her being held hostage at the nightclub.

In Harley's plot shirt, we see that she and Cassandra have been handcuffed together and are making their escape in what can only be a stolen car. This might be the first meeting between the pair, and what leads Cassandra to stick by Harley's side even after they get their handcuffs off.

Throughout the trailer, Edith Piaf's jazzy "Hymne à l'amour" has been playing, and we see Harley lip-syncing to the song in full Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes regalia. Her background dancers are all notably wearing black masks — perhaps this is a hallucination that Harley experiences after she's been captured by Black Mask and shot by a dart?

Harley is proposing a team-up between the skeptical Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya (who it should be noted, is being billed as The Question), and Cassandra Cain. They're all standing in a room that has some interesting red spiral-y lines on the wall that look similar to the background of where an upside-down Zsasz was before. This looks like the Black Mask's lair, where the girls have all assembled to take down the crime lord.

Harley has gotten another costume change (which is a nice change of pace from her increasingly torn Suicide Squad outfit), and looks downright glamorous in a pink scarf and trenchcoat as she shoots a security guard with what looks to be a non-lethal gun. But it's still enough force to send him flying back.

I hope she isn't crying because of the hyena.

Harley's plot shirt makes a return, as she fights her way through security guards and sets off the building's sprinklers. This shot seems to take place right before the scene where she protects Cassandra from a group of leather jacket-clad goons.

Harley's adorable, bright apartment gets destroyed by a huge explosion, while she and Cassandra hide under a table. This seems to take place after their grocery store shopping spree seen earlier in the trailer, but it seems like they won't get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

This shot doesn't have much plot bearing, but I just wanted to point out the stark difference between this scene — where Harley confidently dances around a pole in a silver jacket and some cute pants — and Harley's introduction in Suicide Squad, where she is shimmying down a pole in a slinky silver dress. It's so much less leering and gratuitous than before, and we even get to see her crush a man's balls in another shot. This movie already seems great.

We get to see a little of Huntress practicing with her crossbow in a field with a scarecrow. She usually fights in her tight-fitting leather jackets and pants while as a vigilante, but it's nice to see her in a colorful tracksuit.

"You're that psycho chick," a frightened Cassandra says to Harley, who is insulted by the word. "You never call a woman chick. I'll accept broad, lady, woman, and on occasion, bitch." Cassandra's confusion is heightened when Harley hands her a cartoonish-looking stick of dynamite to throw behind them. This looks like their first meeting after their escape, but it shows that Harley still maintains that insane and irreverent sense of humor is still very much the same.

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Birds of Prey flies into theaters on February 7, 2020.