***UPDATED*** This news has now been confirmed by Deadline. The Batgirl movie has indeed been shelved with no plans to release or even finish it. The original article appears below.
Take this with a grain of salt, but Warner Bros. is reportedly shelving the unfinished Batgirl movie starring Leslie Grace after test screenings of the unfinished film did not impress viewers. Batgirl was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who recently helmed episodes of Ms. Marvel, which was a crowd pleaser. So many fans were hoping for a similar treatment for Batgirl.
A Batgirl movie has been in development since March of 2017 when Joss Whedon approached WB to direct a film based on the DC hero. But after failing to figure out a direction for the picture, Whedon stepped away roughly a year later, in February 2018.
Despite Whedon’s exit, WB kept Batgirl in development. This picture was connected to another troubled production, The Flash, which keeps getting delayed, in part due to the inappropriate actions of its star Ezra Miller. As part of that tie-in, Michael Keaton was set to star as Bruce Wayne/Batman, although J.K. Simmons, the Commissioner Jim Gordon from the DC Extended Universe would also have appeared. It would seem that The Flash would have explained that, but with it getting delayed so often, who knows when (or if) it will come out.
Brendan Fraser was cast as the Batgirl villain Firefly, with Ivory Aquino as Batgirl’s transgender best friend Alysia Yeah. The cast also included Rebecca Front, Corey Johnson, and Ethan Kai.
This axing comes late in the process, as Batgirl was slated to come out THIS year! This film was originally set to debut on HBO Max, but there had been talk that Warner Bros. might move it to a theatrical release like Blue Beetle.
But you may recall that Warner Bros. was bought out by Discovery last year, and its new leadership is going through with a machete, slashing projects that it doesn’t see as profitable. If Batgirl has truly been canceled (and this hasn’t been confirmed), it appears that even with its modest $90M budget, this was going to cost too much to market, and WB Discovery didn’t think they would make enough by going forward or even finishing it.
Among the other projects scrapped are Scoob! Holiday Haunt, the family sitcom The Gordita Chronicles, J.J. Abrams’ Demimonde (which reportedly would have required a $200M+ budget), and the entire CNN+ streaming service, on which $300M had already been spent.
Stay close for updates on Batgirl if there are any! Are you sad to see this project scrapped?
