Batgirl may have just made Warner Bros. history…in a bad way. The $90M budget movie has just been COMPLETELY shelved by the studio for “budget reason”, though there has to be something else to it.
I have never ever seen a $90M budget movie, filled with well-known Hollywood stars and celebrities, and being produced by a movie entertainment giant be completely canned without any kind of digital release. It’s never going to see the light of day.
Supposedly, the hierarchy at Warner Bros. was so petrified and mortified by the poor early-screening reviews that they decided to burry Batgirl forever. How horrific must the movie have been to get such an adverse reaction by the movie-testers and Warner Bros. hierarchy. This must have been Game of Thrones Piolet-level of bad, but worse. Or, maybe, it was even rivaling the dreaded Batman & Robin in awfulness. What a terrifying image!
Yet even that movie was approved by executives and released on the big screen. Batgirl isn’t even getting the direct-to-HBO Max treatment. And that is surprising, given the caliber of actors already on board.
Lesile Grace, the break-out star of In The Heights musical, was cast for the titular role of Jim Gordon’s undercover, crime-fighting daughter. For a rising Hollywood actress’, such as Grace, project to be outright cancelled must be unprecedented. You don’t see Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink, or Sydney Sweetney’s movies getting canned. Especially when said hypothetical movie has cost the producing studio over $90 MILLION to make!
Meanwhile, Brendan Fraiser was set to become the newest entry to the DC Universe’s villains list with his character, Firefly, as the chief antagonist of the film. With a flurry of Frasier-stans taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations over this announcement, I don’t know how Warner Bros. expected this decision to pass over quietly. The people LOVE Brendan Fraiser, and desperately wanted to see his take on Firefly.
My biggest disappointment to spew from this mess? Five words: Michael Keaton returns as Batman. I can’t tell you enough how much I wanted to see the older, more experienced (and modern-looking) version of Keaton’s Batman. The Keaton series (Batman and Batman Returns) is tied with the Dark Knight Trilogy as my favorite incarnation of the Caped Crusader. He may not be as good as Christan Bale’s Batman (for technological reasons, really), but his Bruce Wayne take is infinitely better (in my opinion).
(Producers: Warner Bros./Image Source: Rotten Tomatoes-Batman-Official Trailer #1)
As Keaton said in an interview, “To me, I know the name of the movie is ‘Batman,’ and it’s hugely iconic and very cool and [culturally] iconic and because of Tim Burton, artistically iconic. I knew from the get-go it was Bruce Wayne. That was the secret. I never talked about it. Batman, Batman, Batman does this, and I kept thinking to myself, ‘Y’all are thinking wrong here.’ Bruce Wayne. What kind of person does that?”. That quote just shows his mastery of the character. He is best Bruce Wayne of all time.
I was super excited to see Keaton as Batman again…but now that’s down the toilet too.
Warner Bros. and DC better start getting their act together and stop making flop movies. First it was the Superman Vs. Batman, then Justice League (and, no, Zach Synder’s Justice League Cut wasn’t what it was hyped up to be; it was an average, WAY TOO LONG fanfiction version of the characters), Wonder Woman 1984, and now Batgirl. How will DC ever overtake Marvel if they can’t get their universe off the ground floor?
Images Sources: Featured Image: (DC) (Gotham Knights | Official Batgirl Character Trailer | DC – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Warner Bros. Entertainment; Image Location: Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers) (Batman (1989) Official Trailer #1 – Tim Burton Superhero Movie – YouTube)
Other Sources: (Vanity Fair) (Michael Keaton Exited Batman Role After Clashing Over Franchise Tone – Variety)
