Sad news tonight from Warner Bros. Discovery. Despite only just confirming the film for a theatrical release in the UK, it’s now been revealed that the Batgirl film has been completely shelved.
The news was first broken by the New York Post but soon spread to all of the big industry trades as shockwaves spread across Hollywood. Initially it seemed that poor test screening results were to blame for the cancellation. But that news didn’t tally with earlier reports of positive audience responses to an early cut of the $70M film.
Later stories from THR and Deadline would portray a different picture. With Warner Bros. now under the control of Discovery, new boss David Zaslav is now wading in to radically change the strategy of the studio. Zaslav has made it well known he disagree’s with former boss Jason Kilar’s plans to focus on driving subscriptions through HBO Max. New rumours point to Zaslav shelving all scripted content from HBO Max to focus on theatrical and television.
Batgirl becomes an unfortunate victim of the studios shift. Several reports state that the studio is actively looking to engage with directors Adil el Arbi and Bilall Falah on future projects. They’re also said to be happy with the work that Leslie Grace committed to film as Barbara Gordon so there’s a chance she may appear elsewhere in the future.
Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Batgirl is written by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, The Flash) and produced by Kristin Burr. Starring as Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl is Leslie Grace. The film co-stars J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, Ivory Aquino, Jacob Scipio, Rebecca Front, Corey Johnson, Ethan Kai and Brendan Frasier.
