Despite the desire of fans to see the canceled Batgirl movie, according to new DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran the movie was “not releasable.” Even though the decision to cancel Batgirl was made before Safran and James Gunn were appointed as joint CEOs of DC Studios to oversee Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC output, he spoke at length about how the release of Batgirl something that could never have happened without impacting the people who worked on it in a negative way. However, he also teased that what happened with the movie doesn’t mean that Batgirl won’t fly at some point in the future in a new project. While announcing the new DCU slate of projects, Safran said of Batgirl:
“Batgirl’s a character that inevitably we will include in our story. On the Batgirl front, it’s not about late in the process of the film getting canceled. I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] 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 Adil [El Arbi] and Bilall [Fallah] — the directors — last week, we were chatting. We’d love to be in business with all those folks. Christina Hodson wrote it. Some people are already back in business with us. As I said, a lot of talented people were involved, but the film just was not releasable. It would not have been able to compete in the theatrical marketplace; it was built for the small screen. So, again, I think it was not an easy decision, but they made the right decision by shelving it.”
One of the biggest reasons many were so desperate to see Batgirl was down to the inclusion of Brendan Fraser in what would have been one of his first major roles for a number of years. As Firefly, Fraser would have played the villain of the movie, and would have clashed with Leslie Grace’s Batgirl multiple times in the movie.
Another big disappointment for many was the loss of another appearance by both Michael Keaton as Batman and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. While Keaton’s appearance was expected to be only a small role, the return of Michael Keaton to the role after 30 years was a big crowd-pleaser and would have certainly drawn in many people in the same way that Superman’s Black Adam cameo because a focal point of Black Adam. However, like Black Adam, this may not have ended up being for the best, especially given Safran’s comments.
