Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the nearly-finished Batgirl movie yesterday, in arguably its most controversial decision yet. It’s a rare occurrence in Hollywood that a movie carrying a budget of $90 million and starring several A-list actors gets canceled without even receiving a VOD release. As confirmed by Warner Bros. Discovery, there are no plans for Batgirl to get a theatrical or streaming release ever.

Batgirl starred In the Heights breakout Leslie Grace as the titular superhero along with Brendan Fraser, J.K. Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Ivory Aquino, and Michael Keaton as Batman, reprising his iconic role from the 1989 movie. Filmmaking duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, best known for helming Bad Boys for Life and Ms. Marvel, directed Batgirl from a screenplay by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, The Flash).

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Adil & Bilall were in for a shock when they found out that Batgirl was scrapped. And the timing couldn’t be worse. As per Deadline, the pair were in Morocco for Adil’s wedding at the time and expected to return to the cutting room and finish up the post-production work on Batgirl. Adil & Bilall were excited about Batgirl and had been teasing the film throughout the past month. It’s a shame they’ll never get to realize their vision, and it’s even sadder that they weren’t informed beforehand by the studio.

Warner Bros. Discovery also released a statement thanking the cast and crew for their contributions:

While WBD looks forward to collaborating with the cast again, it’s doubtful anyone associated with Batgirl would want to work with them in the future. As for Adil & Bilall, their next movie Rebel will be released on October 5, 2022.

“The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max. Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future.”

Warner Bros Was Clueless About Batgirl From The Beginning

     Warner Bros.

Five years have passed since the Justice League debacle, and top management has changed multiple times, yet Warner Bros. and DC Films continue to make bizarre decisions. And though stranger things have happened in the industry, the Batgirl cancelation takes the cake.

Apparently, Batgirl wasn’t big enough to turn a profit if released exclusively in theaters, and the $90 million + marketing budget was too big of a price tag for a streaming-only debut. Batgirl was initially an HBO Max exclusive, but WB began contemplating a theatrical release after merging with Discovery+. The new CEO, David Zazlav, is focused on elevating the DC Films division and plans to release DC movies on the big screen only.

However, Batgirl, which had fan-favorites Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraser, and J.K. Simmons in addition to Leslie Grace, was deemed a disaster after poor test screenings. Although, Deadline reports that the reactions weren’t that bad, and Batgirl just needed some VFX work. But WBD thought killing the movie entirely would be more beneficial, as it could be blamed on poor accounts of the previous regime, and costs would be recouped.

Plus, the studio and even the directors were clueless about where Batgirl fit in the multiverse. It features a Batman from an alternate universe who, per reports, is friends with Commissioner Gordon from the Snyderverse. Nothing made sense, but fans were excited about Michael Keaton’s return. Batgirl also starred Brendan Fraser as the main antagonist in his first mainstream leading role in a decade and was going to introduce DC’s first trans character, Alysia Yeoh (Ivory Aquino), but all that went down the drain when WBD scrapped Batgirl.

Hopefully, the studio will get its act together and stop playing with the fans’ feelings. It remains to be seen how The Flash fares after the Ezra Miller controversies.