Followers and press reacted with shock this week when rumors surfaced that new Warner Bros. Discovery studio management are cancelling any launch of the brand new Batgirl film by filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and starring Leslie Grace within the title function (aka Barbara Gordon). It shortly turned obvious the rumors are sadly true, and the movie is the newest sufferer of broad cost-cutting and remaking of the studio’s future plans.
Leslie Grace stars in “Batgirl”
Batgirl was scheduled to launch on HBO Max later this yr, and former government heads had even thought of a theatrical launch for the mission. Initially, I suspected the studio was merely shelving Batgirl till subsequent yr as a result of continuity points that not too long ago arose surrounding Batman within the DCEU. And for a quick second, all indicators appeared to logically level to this as what was actually taking place.
The Flash resets the established order for DC movies by changing Ben Affleck’s model of the Caped Crusader with Michael Keaton’s incarnation. Keaton was speculated to proceed within the function in Batgirl and in Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom, however repeated manufacturing delays and different concerns pressured WBD to shuffle launch dates for a number of movies.
Consequently, The Flash now releases just a few months after the Aquaman sequel in 2023. This led to the current information that Affleck was returning another time to painting Batman, since Keaton’s Batman gained’t have been launched into the DCEU but. Nevertheless, Batgirl — which is about after the occasions of The Flash and sees Keaton’s Bruce Wayne/Batman interacting with Commissioner Gordon and Batgirl from a distinct timeline than he’s used to — had thus far remained on HBO Max’s 2022 slate.
Which means it didn’t make sense for Batgirl to retain its launch date, because it portrays occasions apparently happening after Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom in addition to The Flash. A Batgirl delay appeared inevitable, and I’d been ready for them to announce it. So when the rumor broke this morning that the movie had been cancelled, I suspected this was a misunderstanding about an imminent announcement of a delay.
Nevertheless, I used to be additionally aware Batgirl was written and produced as a streaming movie with a decrease funds than a typical theatrical superhero launch, which contradicts the incoming house owners’ and government leaderships’ imaginative and prescient to refocus on theatrical productions over streaming, particularly for the corporate’s greatest branded IP. So whereas my mind mentioned, “take a breath, it’s in all probability the inevitable delay,” my intestine was fearful.
And throughout the hour, the rumors had been confirmed — studio management determined Batgirl doesn’t really feel cinematic sufficient to be given a theatrical launch, and per President and CEO David Zaslav’s imaginative and prescient they’re decided not to launch main branded IP on the HBO Max streaming platform as lower-budgeted fare. So there are formally no plans to launch Batgirl in its current kind, and there are not any plans or expectations that it’s going to endure the form of in depth and costly rewrites, reworks, and reshoots mandatory to rework it right into a theatrical manufacturing.
It seems like the primary ingredient is certainly scale and spectacle, because the studio appeared — and nonetheless appears — pleased with the movie’s inventive staff and their work. However Batgirl was made below a studio management and plan that explicitly prioritized a shift towards streaming and exploitation of main branded IP in unique streaming content material. Which is actually the precise reverse of the will and focus of the brand new management, who expressly oppose creation and launch of massive branded IP on the streaming service and who as an alternative mandate a theatrical method with main content material manufacturers.
Maybe the studio will take a softer method, with out declaring outright that Batgirl won’t ever see the sunshine of day, because the press are presently reporting however which is frankly not possible to say proper now. Info and plans about DC properties change weekly, particularly not too long ago after the studio acquired new house owners and new company management with a fully totally different overarching imaginative and prescient whereas ready to rent somebody to truly create and implement a model new plan for the DC properties particularly.
So forgive me if I doubt there’s really any definitive alternative being made right this moment about the whole future destiny of a film that includes the Bat-family and starring the returning Michael Keaton as Batman, which could be delayed for no less than a yr earlier than a choice actually must be finalized, with room to interrupt it up right into a miniseries and simply add just a few million further bucks to reinforce the spectacle per episode, or to spice up it sufficient to make it an excellent POVD launch forward of an HBO Max premiere down the highway when the deal with theatrical maybe lessens the restrictions on releasing occasional large branded IP on the streamer. Or any variety of different various outcomes we might take into account, with a lot time earlier than a choice even must be made.
Taking Batgirl off the slate and never committing to its destiny is just like the “have your cake and eat it too” place WBD finds itself in with The Flash — there’s nonetheless loads of time earlier than they begin selling the movie in earnest, there are presently no main contractual obligations between Miller and WBD past the finished movies already on the discharge calendar, and there’s been no authorized or narrative conclusion or definitive willpower of all info concerning Miller’s non-public life, so the studio is below no strain to take a agency stand about any of the information stories concerning Ezra Miller, nor to make any definitive selections about altering The Flash or its launch plans.
So I hope Warner takes a place nearer to, “It’s cancelled for now, we’ll see what we determine to do with it as soon as we’ve made another selections and plans, however proper now it’s merely off the discharge calendar.” As a result of that one incorporates the actual fact the movie needed to be delayed regardless, for continuity causes, and that any variety of issues might occur or change within the subsequent yr, so there’s no motive to decide to something right this moment.
In the meantime, followers ought to likewise take a breath and bear in mind, no matter you hear right this moment issues lower than what you’ll hear tomorrow, and that’ll be simply as true when tomorrow comes. No last willpower of Batgirl’s destiny could be anticipated right this moment, as a result of none may even be made by these in cost. With so many shifting elements and a lot change already underway, even the oldsters in cost can’t know for certain what any of that is undoubtedly going to lead to a yr from now.
They absolutely really feel Batgirl doesn’t conform to their need for big-budget theatrical releases for large branded IP. Moreover, they don’t wish to launch lower-budgeted streaming productions of main branded IP once they’re dedicated to the reverse method. And since it may well’t be launched this yr for continuity causes anyway, that made every other debate educational — Batgirl needed to be cancelled, no less than for now, they usually don’t have sufficient data and commitments but to make a last choice past that.
This additionally means it in all probability gained’t be a precedence to rethink, since once more there’s no imminent want to take action. Which tells me a yr from now, they’ll have two doubtless large blockbuster hit DC superhero movies in theaters — Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom, and The Flash — they usually’ll be sitting on a completed Batgirl film that includes their newly minted and inevitably beloved Keaton Batman. And they’ll have the choice to launch it as “deliberate” (that means after the resetting of the DCEU in The Flash), or launch it on Blu-ray and PVOD, or spend $60+ million for rewrites and reshoots to raise it to a theatrical degree if potential. However ultimately, I don’t see why they’d forego the chance to recoup bills, if one presents itself. And I really feel fairly certain one will.
So for now, there isn’t a Batgirl film anymore, and we don’t know if or when it would ever see the sunshine of day. For now, there’s no plan to launch it — but in addition technically no plan to not launch it, both. It’s a sufferer of circumstance thus far, and circumstances are all the time altering, so we have now to attend and see what the following few months have in retailer, and something we see and listen to — together with from official sources, to be blunt — must be understood as inherently certified by an limitless array of “except… however… as of now…”
I’ve personally been a giant advocate of a Batgirl film, and followers will bear in mind I spent just a few years banging the drum about Batgirl and Supergirl each being precedence tasks for the studio (whereas others insisted neither property was a precedence and neither had been prone to seem on display any time quickly), so I’ve apparent biases right here and would like to see Batgirl launched in some format. And I’m assured sufficient in DC properties to say I anticipate subsequent yr’s theatrical releases to supply the mandatory context for Batgirl to get a reappraisal, and maybe WBD will determine to place it again on HBO Max’s launch schedule in spite of everything.
