Kevin Smith is blunt with his criticism towards Warner Bros. Discovery for cancelling the Batgirl film.
Regardless of where you stand on Warner Bros. Discovery and their decision to cancel the Batgirl film, it’s no doubt that this move is unprecedented from any big studio, especially in the Heroic Age of Hollywood. Given that the film, which was to star Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, was already filmed and currently in post-production, the choice to cancel the film for a tax writeoff rubbed many the wrong way. One person that was really disappointed by the move was Kevin Smith.
On his podcast Hollywood Babble-On, Kevin Smith reacted to the decision to cancel Batgirl, and he’s pretty blunt with his criticism. Here, he claims that the optics are just really bad on all fronts, and pretty difficult regarding the circumstances:
“It’s an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina Batgirl movie. I don’t give a shit if the movie was absolute fucking dogshit. I guarantee you that it wasn’t. The two directors who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of Ms. Marvel, and it was a wonderful fucking show and they had more money to do Batgirl than they had to do an episode of Ms. Marvel and stuff.”
A strategical shift, for better or worse.
The decision to cancel Batgirl was Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s own repudiation of previous CEO Jason Kilar’s approach to theatrical DCEU releases and HBO Max streaming exclusives. The DCEU film fell victim to the regime change, and reports that the film was “irredeemably bad” seem greatly exaggerated given that the film tested similarly to the first cut of Black Adam, which was provided the resources needed for reshoots and post-production to fine-tune the film. Also, Kevin Smith’s comments here make total sense given that cancelling a Latina-led superhero film while having no official comment at this time regarding The Flash star Ezra Miller and their legal issues is just bad optics all around.
Batgirl was set to feature Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, as well as J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Brendan Fraser as Firefly, and Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Keaton is still set to reprise his role as his version of the Caped Crusader in the upcoming DCEU film, The Flash.
Be sure to continue following Heroic Hollywood for all the latest news from the Batgirl cancellation, the future of the DCEU, and Kevin Smith’s upcoming projects. Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: Hollywood Babble-On
