‘Batgirl’ Directors Talk About Stars After Shocking Cancellation

Hollywood is still reeling from the unprecedented situation of WB choosing to take a giant tax write-off on a $90 million Batgirl movie by killing it, rather than releasing it to theaters or HBO Max. Taxes are a big part of why this seems to be the case, given that WB is in a cost-cutting frenzy under new management, but there have been rumblings that the film isn’t very good at the base either, and that WB wants to move in new directions with DC instead of continuing to make DCEU spin-offs of increasingly secondary characters, for better or for worse.

Now, the film’s directors and its star have issued statements about an extremely disappointing situation.

Batgirl is directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who made Bad Boys for Life and a few episodes of Ms. Marvel, and as you’d expect, they’re none too pleased with how this turned out. Here’s their statement, posted on Instagram:

“We are saddened and shocked by the news. We still can’t believe it. As filmmakers, it’s critical that our work is shown to the public, and while the film was a long way from completion, we wish fans around the world had the opportunity to see and embrace the finished film for themselves.”

“Our amazing cast and crew did a tremendous job and worked so hard to bring Batgirl to life. We are forever grateful to have been a part of this team. It was a dream to work with fantastic actors like Michael Keaton, JK Simmons, Brendan Fraser, Jacob Scipio, Corey Johnson, Rebecca Front and especially the great Leslie Grace, who portrayed Batgirl with such passion, dedication and humanity.” .

Leslie Grace herself also released a statement as it would be a huge role for her as she only has one other film, In the Heights. Her thoughts:

“Querida familia! After the recent news about our film Batgirl, I am proud of the love, hard work and intention of all our incredible cast and tireless crew for this film over 7 months in Scotland.”

“I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged lifelong relationships in the process!” Grace continued. “To every Batgirl fan — THANK YOU for the love and faith, for allowing me to take up the cape and be, as Babs said it best, ‘my own damn hero!'”

Then again, it seems likely that Batgirl might just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to killing off future DC projects as WB makes a hard reset. Rumors have now spread that many, many more projects are in jeopardy, such as the upcoming Supergirl movie that was meant to share many actors with Batgirl, but fans are also worried about projects like Blue Beetle and Black Canary. And no one knows what’s going to happen with The Flash, which cost even more, and was a center of controversy because of the behavior of its star, Ezra Miller, before any of this WB management drama began.

We’re about to learn a lot more about WB’s future plans and what else is being cut. Expect a lot of DC revelations in there, whether it’s more dead projects or new directions.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content collection newsletter, God Rolls.

Get my science fiction novels Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.