Things are getting a little weird in Gotham City. Batgirl, the upcoming DC Comics film directed by Bad Boys for Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is no longer coming to HBO Max and will not be released in any form.
According to reports from The New York Post and The Wrap, Batgirl was effectively done. Filming wrapped in March and the project was in test screenings with audiences. Reports suggest that this is where the film was doomed, with poor screenings at a time when new management at Warner Bros. seeks to restore DC’s theatrical brand.
It’s not very common for a finished franchise film to be completely shelved like this, and it’s especially odd now that streaming platforms are hungry for content. However, the new CEO of Warner Bros. David Zaslav has big plans to overhaul the company’s entire film output, and regime changes often mean that many once safe bets are thrown out in sometimes surprising ways.
Batgirl has had a long and tortured development history. Originally announced in 2017, the film originally had Avengers director Joss Whedon attached to direct before he left in 2018. The latter film had assembled a strong cast, with “In the Heights” star Leslie Grace in the title role, Brendan Fraser , set to play the villainous Firefly and Michael Keaton returning in some fashion as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Polygon reached out to Warner Bros. but did not receive a comment by the time of publication.
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