'Birds of Prey' Villains 'More Than Likely' Gay, Says Ewan McGregor

We’re obviously really excited for the Harley Quinn-led Birds of Prey movie over here, but one thing that’s gotten a little grating is the question of whether or not the villains of the movie are gay.

We Got This Covered previously claimed that Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor, will be canonically gay and have moments of “sexual tension” with Chris Messina’s character, Victor Zsasz.

Variety caught up with the two actors at the opening of the 3-day “Harleywood & Highland” event taking over Hollywood in anticipation of the film’s release. When pushed as to whether or not their characters are actually gay and together in the film, McGregor and Messina didn’t exactly give a straight answer.

“It’s very complicated,” McGregor says. “Their relationship is very much based in— there’s a want and a need in there for sure.”

“There’s a real love of anarchy,” Messina adds, though it’s unclear if he was trying to imply that two male villains hooking up is something he feels would be tied to loving anarchy or if he was just grasping at straws.

He stumbles over trying to find something else to say until McGregor finally interrupts: “More than likely, yes.”

We’ve previously gone over some of the problems with coding villains as queer that Hollywood has historically had, but now we’re also, somehow, simultaneously facing the issue of queerbaiting.

While Birds of Prey might very well be able to pull off having queer villains since they’re also reportedly including a lesbian hero, the ambiguity of constantly alluding to characters being queer yet refusing to make it canon, often due to not wanting to alienate homophobic viewers, has become an even bigger problem in modern day media.

Of course, we don’t yet know how Birds of Prey itself handles these two as a potential item. It could very well be that they ARE canonically together and the actors were just asked not to reveal too many spoilers. But until the film’s February 7th release date, we’ll just have to keep holding our breath.