The ongoing production of HBO Max’s Batgirl has teased yet another reference to the DCEU, further establishing its evident connection to the ongoing lore of the DC’s shared cinematic continuity. A photo taken on the film’s set suggests that Lex Luthor, the arch-nemesis of Superman and former head of Lex Corp., is still in prison. It’s an image of a magazine cover that claims to account for an exclusive interview from Luthor and his efforts to appeal his sentencing, thus, establishing that the conglomerate-turned-maniac is still fighting his case. The image not only references Zack Snyder’s initial films that formed DC Extended Universe but also puts Batgirl in an intricate position within the DCEU timeline.
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The Set Image: Lex Luthor’s Presence In DCEU
The image shows the magazine cover of Gotham Tattler, featuring snippets from a detailed exclusive interview of Lex Luthor inside. The cover headline states:
The headline, which surprisingly misspells the man’s surname, refers to Lex Luthor’s fate at the end of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. In that film, after his involvement in Doomsday’s attack is out, he is sent by the Batman to the Arkham Asylum. It is revealed in Justice League that he has somehow escaped his captivity and is revitalizing his resources to wage a battle against the newly formed team-up of superheroes. He then decides to take out his first target, Bruce Wayne, with the help of Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, who has a personal enmity with the caped crusader. Luthor’s arrest and admission into the Arkham Asylum were kept as a canon plotline in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which Snyder’s fellow DCEU directors believe to be the true continuation to Batman v. Superman.
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The image also probably establishes that Batgirl is a part of the original DCEU which began with Man of Steel, and it isn’t set in an alternate timeline. Batgirl’s presence in the DCEU timeline was though cleared when J.K. Simmons was brought back to play Commissioner Jim Gordon from the previous films; however, it was once again left in confusion when the Batman iteration the film signed up was Michael Keaton and not Ben Affleck. There were fan speculations that The Flash shall erase Snyder’s films from the shared continuity, which will make Keaton’s Batman the primary dark knight of DC Extended Universe.
However, if the image is to be believed, those events aren’t getting erased from the timeline at all. The magazine cover also mentions the infamous Capitol Bombings in Batman v. Superman that Luthor planned and executed to frame Superman. The headline says: “Witness Testimonies From The Capitol Building Bombing.”
The reference indicates that Luthor is still being tried for his role in the attack on Capitol and seeking new counsel. If such a crucial moment from that film is referenced here, it’s unlikely that those events will ever be erased from the original DCEU timeline. How those events will fit in the film’s plot is yet to be known, and it would be interesting to see how the film explains the fact that Luthor is somehow back in prison after he escapes from Arkham in Justice League and its Snyder Cut.
