During the unveiling of the future of the DC Universe slate, co-CEO of DC Studios Peter Safran commented on the cancellation of Batgirl.
Safran revealed that not only had he seen the film, but also said that despite it being made by a ton of talented people, the film was “not releasable.” For that reason, Safran said, he believes that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made “a bold and courageous decision” to cancel the film because he thinks it only would have ended up hurting the people involved in the long run.
“I saw the movie,” said Safran (via Deadline). “There are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera in that film, but that was not releasable. It happens sometimes…I think (Warner Discovery CEO David) Zaslav and the team made a bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC and those people involved.”
Filmed in 2021, the Batgirl film was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, from a script written by Christina Hodson. After finishing filming in 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that, despite the film being in post-production, they would not be releasing it. The move came as Warner Bros. Discovery looked to cut costs everywhere in the company, but drew a ton of ire from fans and the world of Hollywood as a whole.
Batgirl was set to star Grace (In the Heights) in the role of Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon. The hero was first seen in the 1967 Batman series with the late Yvonne Craig playing Barbara. Her first comic book appearance was in Detective Comics #357 by writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino.