Things are getting a little weird in Gotham City. Batgirl, the upcoming DC Comics movie directed by Bad Boys for Life duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, will no longer be coming to HBO Max and will not be released in any way.
According to reports from The New York Post and The Wrap, Batgirl was indeed made. Filming was completed in March and the project had been in test screenings with audiences. Reports indicate that this is where the film was doomed, testing poorly during a time when the new leadership at Warner Bros. is looking to rebuild DC’s theatrical brand.
It’s not particularly common for an entire franchise movie to be completely shelved like this, and it’s especially rare now with content-starved streaming platforms. However, new Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav has big plans to overhaul the company’s entire film output, and regime changes often mean that many safe bets are thrown out in sometimes surprising ways.
Batgirl has had a long and tortured history of development. First announced in 2017, the film initially had Avengers director Joss Whedon on board to direct before coming out in 2018. The final film had assembled a strong cast, with Leslie Grace the breakout star from In the Heights in the lead role, Brendan Fraser who would play the villain. Firefly and Michael Keaton somehow returning as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Polygon reached out to Warner Bros. but received no comments prior to publication.