Looks like David Zaslav wasn’t the only one who wasn’t fond of Batgirl.
The former DCEU film that really kicked off a good bit of the turmoil at the company lately, was unceremoniously canceled before it was supposed to release due to tax reasons. Now, at the unveiling of the DC film slate, Peter Safran had some different words for the film.
I saw the movie. There are a lot of incredibly talented people in front and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable. It happens sometimes. I actually think that Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved. I think that they really stood up to support DC, the characters, the story, the quality of all of that.
I spoke to the directors last week. We’d love to be in business with all those folks. Christina Hodson, who wrote it. Some of these people we’re already back in business with. It would not have been able to compete in the theatrical marketplace. It was built for the small screen. I think that it was not an easy decision, but they made the right decision.
Batgirl was canceled in August 2022 following the merger between WB and Discovery. The move was widely panned and seen as anti-art. As we get more news about James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s plans for DC following their announcement of Chapter 1 today, we might see Leslie Grace as Batgirl in the future. This seems pretty strange because Batgirl was testing really well in press screenings, on par with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which is getting a full release from DC.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were the directors of the Batgirl movie, working from a script by Christina Hodson, the writer behind Birds of Prey and The Flash. Its cast also included J. K. Simmons as James Gordon, Jacob Scipio as Anthony Bressi, Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, and Brendan Fraser as Firefly.
A different character from Batgirl, Michael Keaton‘s Batman is set to appear in the upcoming The Flash, this June.
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