Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made the controversial decision to pull the plug on Batgirl last year, despite the movie being close to finished after months of shooting in Scotland.
Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah only needed to do a few pickups and handle the typical post-production work, but scrapping the entire thing as a tax write-off rather than releasing it on HBO Max ultimately made more sense to the studio. As a result, the DC Comics adaptation will never see the light of day.
Our first look at Batgirl was a tad divisive as many fans compared Leslie Grace's costume to what we frequently see on The CW. That backed up claims the movie felt too low-budget even for streaming, though a newly released behind-the-scenes photo showcases what we're assuming was meant to be the Caped Crusader's "final" armoured Batsuit.
We're assuming that first costume was a homemade effort, with Barbara Gordon's eventual team-up with Michael Keaton's Batman leading to her getting this upgraded version.
The plan had been for this movie to lead to that Dark Knight taking centre stage in a Batman Beyond project, likely meaning we could have looked forward to the Bat Family being part of the now-defunct DCEU. It's a shame those plans will never come to fruition, but the DCU's future looks undeniably exciting and we've heard that there are big plans for Batman.
The outrage surrounding Batgirl's cancellation appears to have died away in recent months, though many filmmakers and actors are now said to be reluctant to work with Warner Bros. Discovery. That didn't deter James Gunn and Peter Safran from signing up to take charge of DC Studios, though, and it remains to be seen whether they have their own plans for Batgirl.
What do you guys think about this Batgirl costume?