A majority of the Birds of Prey cast has already been locked down. The only role that remained was Cassandra Cain, a character who was going to be re-imagined as a 12-year-old Asian girl.

Now it looks like director Cathy Yan may have found her. According to new reports, newcomer Ella Jay Basco is in negotiations to play the young assassin. More on the report, below.

Variety was the first to report on the news.

Birds of Prey will be the first all-female ensemble superhero film of its kind. It will see Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Huntress and Black Canary (Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jurnee Smollett-Bell) join forces to protect Cassandra from Black Mask aka Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) after she stole a diamond from him. Rosie Perez will portray Gotham City police detective Renee Montoya.

Basco is by far the youngest and newest face on the cast. Birds of Prey would mark her first major film role. Before that, she has appeared in a handful of TV episodes for shows like Veep, Grey’s Anatomy, and Superior Donuts.

For those who may not be familiar with Cassandra Cain, she is a highly skilled martial artist and the daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva. She had a rough upbringing as she was deprived of speech and human contact. All of that was to condition her to become one of the greatest assassins in the world. However, she soon became an ally to Batman and Batgirl. But it’s unclear if the latter will make an appearance in the film. However, WB is currently working on a Batgirl film, which will be written by Christina Hodson. Cain was also one of the few who took up the mantle of Batgirl.

Production is scheduled to begin in 2019 for a February 7, 2020, release.

[Source: Variety]