Based on the reaction from a lot of fans, sitting through The Flash clearly wasn't the most pleasant experience for quite a few people, but it sounds like it wasn't a particularly positive watch for Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah for a very different reason.
While chatting with Insider to promote their new Syrian war drama, Rebel, the filmmakers explained why watching the Scarlet Speedster's solo debut made them "sad."
"We watched it and we were sad,” Adil revealed. “We love director Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara, who produced the movie. But when we watched it, we felt we could have been part of the whole thing. We didn’t get the chance to show Batgirl to the world and let the audience judge for themselves. Because the audience really is our ultimate boss and should be the deciders of if something is good or bad, or if something should be seen or not.”
The pair were originally told that Batgirl would release after The Flash, continuing Michael Keaton's revived tenure as Batman. However, Warner Bros. Discovery later decided to scrap the film completely as a tax write off.
“Our movie was very different than The Flash,” Adil added. “That has a big fantasy component, ours was more grounded. More like Tim Burton’s Gotham City.” Bilall described the cancellation as the “biggest disappointment of our careers,” adding, “As a fanboy, just to be in the presence of Keaton as Batman, that’s just a privilege and an honor. But it’s a bittersweet feeling.”
We've heard that Batgirl simply wasn't up to snuff, with DC Studios co-head Peter Safran describing it as "un-releasable." We may never know if this was accurate, but either way, the movie never seeing the light of day hasn't deterred Arbi and Fallah from potentially working on another DC-based project.
"There's still a feeling of unfinished business," Bilall said. "Our love for DC, Batman, Batgirl, Gotham City, it's so big that, as fans, we could never say no to another project. If we got another chance to be part of it, we'd do it. We didn't get our day in court. We still want to make our case."
As for Batgirl star Leslie Grace, she seems to feel there might be an opportunity to suit-up as Barbara Gordon again down the line in the new DCU, so we may not have seen the last of Gotham City's other Caped Crusader.