‘Batgirl’ Killed by Warner Bros. (And Twitter Has Some Scathing Hot Takes)

Hollywood is a fickle place. It’ll put out some of the most embarrassingly awful movies but keep indie gems in production purgatory. It’ll cast stars with zero talent, and reject actors who lack name recognition but could actually carry a film. And now, they’re messing with Batgirl.

According to Variety, Warner Bros. has axed the feature film adaptation of the badass DC Comics character. Leslie Grace had been set to star as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl and filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life and Ms. Marvel) were directing. The cast also included J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Jim Gordon (Barbara’s father), Michael Keaton (Batman), and Brendan Fraser (Firefly, aka the villain). There were even whisperings of a sequel.

“There’s crazy stunts, crazy drops,” Grace said in an earlier Variety interview. “She’s a biker chick, so you’re going to see her do a bunch of badassery…There were a lot of long days, but it was so worth it.”

Batgirl was well into post-production and $90 million deep when canned, and the reason, well, seems a little suss. The film was greenlit last year and was meant to be a Warner Bros. feature film made specifically for HBO Max. But now, the powers that be at Warner Bros. Discovery are apparently claiming the company’s priorities are theatrical releases, and Batgirl just isn’t fit for the big screen.

“Studio insiders insist the decision to axe “Batgirl” was not driven by the quality of the film or the commitment of the filmmakers, but by the desire for the studio’s slate of DC features to be at a blockbuster scale,” Variety reports.

Yeah, yeah, lay the blame where you will, Warner Bros. Anyone with a brain can see that sexism, racism, and transphobia (Ivory Aquino was set to play Alysia Yeoh, the first trans character in the DC Comics cinematic universe) were involved here. After all, the release of The Flash, starring an AOL white man with a predatory sexual history (Ezra Miller) is still moving ahead as far as we know.

But you don’t need us to tell you that. Just consult Twitter, where the hot takes were scathing.

Folks who are like “Batgirl was shelved because it was bad” acting as if that has ever stopped WB from releasing something before, lol.

— Richard Newby (@RICHARDLNEWBY) August 2, 2022

WB: let’s scrap the Batgirl film with a promising young star, Michael Keaton Batman, & Brendan Fraiser as the villain but make absolutely no changes to a Flash film where are star is currently hiding from the police https://t.co/qFNmcPlmcj

— Nicholas (@NicholasJLevi) August 2, 2022

hey I’m realizing most people don’t know this – if you email Warner Bros they’ll just send you a copy of Batgirl on DVD

— ben mekler (@benmekler) August 2, 2022

Marvel Studios: Buckle up because we’re releasing SEVENTY-THREE MOVIES next year!

Sony: Go see Morbius. Go see Morbius again.

WB: Batgirl’s cancelled btw.

— Kasey (@RawbertBeef) August 3, 2022

Batgirl scrapped but Flash is still on the release schedule… pic.twitter.com/fhkfwp3T02

— Hannah (@rejectedhannah) August 2, 2022

DC fans: Can’t wait for Batgirl

WB: pic.twitter.com/M4Vpf8nDua

— Zangetsu (@Zangetsu_20) August 2, 2022

Re: Batgirl getting shelved pic.twitter.com/mh1gQOvFdv

— Marcelo Millicay (@millicay95) August 3, 2022

We’re not giving up on you, Batgirl. We know you’ll get your screen time somewhere, someday.

Cover Photo: Warner Bros.