Warner Bros. Scraps $90 Million 'Batgirl' Movie
Media and entertainment company Warner Bros. Discovery has scrapped $90 million film Batgirl after completing earlier this year.
Unfortunately for fans of DC Comics, Batgirl will not see the light of day. On Tuesday (August 2), film production company Warner Bros. Pictures announced that the film, which stars Leslie Grace as the title role of Barbara Gordon (AKA Batgirl), has been canceled. The film, which originally received a $75 million production budget, later pushed to $90 million due to delays during the COVID pandemic, will not premiere theatrically or on any streaming platform. According to Variety, principal photography for Batgirl concluded earlier this year, with the film also being in post-production. According to the publication, the decision to shelve Batgirl was a tax one. This also means they can't profit from the movie in any kind of way. (Meaning they won't be selling the movie to another streamer.)
“The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max," said a Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson per The Wrap. 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."
In April, Grace shared with Variety that the now-canceled film would be action-packed.
“There’s crazy stunts, crazy drops,” Grace said of the film. “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.”
Co-starring with Grace was Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and The Mummy actor Brendan Fraser, portraying villain Firefly, the film being directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Warner Bros. Pictures also axed Scoob! sequel Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, which had a budget of $40 million.