Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Stunts in ‘Kate’ Proves She Needs a ‘Birds of Prey’ Spinoff

There have been quite a few lady assassin action movies recently, and Netflix’s Kate—which began streaming today—doesn’t have much to make it stand out from the crowd. But there is at least one positive takeaway from Kate: It proves that Mary Elizabeth Winstead would absolutely crush a Birds of Prey spin-off film.

In Kate, Winstead stars as a deadly fighter named—you guessed it—Kate. Kate was raised as an assassin since she was a little girl by her handler, Varrick (Woody Harrelson). But after Kate is forced to kill a man in front of his young daughter, she decides to retire. Not so fast, though—someone poisons her, giving her only 24 hours to live. The hunt to find her attacker begins, and Kate forms an unlikely friendship with Ani (Miku Martineau), the daughter of the man she killed.

You can probably guess where the movie goes from there: lots of bang-bang, punch-punch, stab-stabbery ensues. But despite its predictable plot, it’s hard to deny that Winstead is very good at playing hardened vigilantes out for revenge. We aren’t given much on Kate as a character, but Winstead makes her feel lived-in and real all the same. She gets plenty of bad-ass fighting moments, like the part where she cuts off her own hair with a knife to escape the grip of an assailant or the part where she takes down 15 or so men on her own.

What’s lacking, though, is the humor that made Winstead so delightful as the deadly-but-awkward assassin in the 2020 DC superhero film, Birds of Prey. To be clear, this is the fault of the Kate script, not Winstead. And that’s why my main takeaway from Kate is that Winstead desperately needs her own Huntress movie.

Here are the facts: 1) Winstead was a fan-favorite in Birds of Prey as the super-skilled marksman who could take down any man with her crossbow but also said adorably awkward things like, “Um, I really like how you were able to kick so high in those tight pants.” 2) Winstead proved herself more than capable of carrying an action movie on her own with Kate, including performing many of her own stunts.

In an interview for the film’s press notes, Winstead said she did more stunt work on Kate than ever before. “I’ve always loved stunt work, but they really took me to a different level, she said. She added that she was even injured on set during the kitchen fight scene with actor Miyavi. “There was a moment where he was supposed to headbutt me, but do a “stunt headbutt” and stop halfway before you actually get to the other person’s head,” Winstead said. “He just full-on headbutted me and I went flying! I fell to the ground and had a big welt on my forehead.” But don’t worry—Winstead got him back. “I think I ended up cutting his eye with a piece of breakaway glass. And then I really messed up his chest when I was slamming him against the fridge. We were both really scratched and bruised at the end of that fight.”

In other words, Winstead worked her butt off in Kate, and it shows. She’s come a long way from being Romana Flowers in Scott Pilgrim—she’s a bonafide action star. Now she just needs a slightly more interesting character to embody—like, for example, Helena Bertinelli from Birds of Prey. Winstead herself already said she is down for it. C’mon, Warner Bros. You know you want to!

Watch Kate on Netflix