Warner Bros. has shelved the Batgirl movie and there are no plans to release it

The Batgirl film was set to be released on HBO Max in 2022. It was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Leslie Grace was Batgirl,  J.K. Simmons as James Gordon, Michael Keaton in it as Bruce Wayne and Brendan Fraser as Garfield Lynns/Firefly.

Warner Bros. had already spent $90 million dollars on the film, but they have now shelved it indefinitely with no plans to release it.

To be honest, I heard about this from the New York Post when I was going to bed last night and thought that it must just have been a rumour. The fact it was not mentioned during SDCC was odd. Turns out it is all true.

The initial $75 million production budget for the project reached $90 million, due in part to COVID-related delays and protocols so it does seem odd that they would just write that off..

There does appear to be some conflicting rumours about the reasons why, but it just sounds like there were some major problems with the film itself.

The Wrap reports that, the leaders of the studio determined ultimately, in spite of reshoots and increased budget, that the movie simply did not work, according to insiders. The new owners and management, led by CEO David Zaslav, are committed to making DC titles big theatrical event films, and “Batgirl” isn’t that. Insiders added that studio loves the film’s directors and star, and are actively planning to work with them soon.

It does seem strange that, if the film “did not work” then why would they want to plan more work with those involved?

To be honest, I was not really that bothered about this film. I do like Batgirl, but I find many of the DC film just fall flat with me. I was looking forward to seeing what Brendan Fraser would do as the villain and how Michael Keaton would be involved.

Sadly it just reinforces my opinion that behind the scenes of the DC movies, they just have not got a clue how to handle them. That won’t have been helped by all the problems Ezra Miller has been allegedly caused with all of his shenanigans. The Flash movie was meant to be the big turning point that would bring everything together and wipe out Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill’s Batman and Superman. However, that film has been pushed back which is probably why Affleck has been filming scenes in Aquaman 2.

Will The Flash movie ever be released? If so will they reshoot the whole thing?

It is sad for those involved in the production of Batgirl, but does this mean that there is now some beginning of a true direction for the DCU or will it just keep spinning off into more mess?