Batgirl star Leslie Grace is opening up about the cancellation of the DC Comics movie.
DC Studios co-head Peter Safran recently described the Batgirl movie as “not releasable,” but its star Leslie Grace is defending the project months after its cancellation. During a recent interview with Variety, Grace revealed how she found out that the movie was being canned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that shocked fans and Hollywood insiders.
“I thought I was getting punked, but it checked out,” Leslie told Variety. “Then came hysterical laughter like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’ I know that the filmmakers and producers were expecting to hear from the studio about the film, and the anticipation was, ‘How do we broaden the movie out to take it from a streaming format to a theatrical release?’ But as we all know, it was the complete opposite. When we were expecting XYZ amount of support and money to expand scenes — to do pickup shots and those kinds of things — that was a gut punch. But then we learned that it was in the interest of writing down some debt? That part really stung.”
The Batgirl actress added: “I got to see the film as far as it got to; the film wasn’t complete by the time that it was tested. There were a bunch of scenes that weren’t even in there. They were at the beginning of the editing process, and they were cut off because of everything going on at the company. But the film that I got to see — the scenes that were there — was incredible. There was definitely potential for a good film, in my opinion. Maybe we’ll get to see clips of it later on.”
Batgirl was shelved back in August 2022, following the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery. The movie was used as a tax-write off. The move received widespread criticism and almost led to a premature studio exit from former DC Films president Walter Hamada.
Is Leslie Grace coming back as Batgirl?
Reports at the time of the Batgirl cancellation indicated that Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are considering having Leslie Grace appear as Barbara Gordon in other DC Comics movies. For now, Grace’s Batgirl future remains in doubt as James Gunn and Peter Safran continue mapping out the future of the DC Universe.
Michael Keaton’s Batman, one of the main characters of Batgirl, is set to appear in Ezra Miller’s first cinematic solo outing as The Flash, which is currently slated to hit theaters in Summer 2023. He’s also supposed to be in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but his cameo may have been cut following a recent round of release date shifts.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were the directors of the Batgirl movie, working from a script by Christina Hodson, the writer behind Birds of Prey and The Flash. Its cast also included J. K. Simmons as James Gordon, Jacob Scipio as Anthony Bressi, Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh and Brendan Fraser as Firefly. Rebecca Front, Corey Johnson and Ethan Kai were also on board in undisclosed role.
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