Batgirl movie was not releasable and would have hurt DC, says Peter Safran

We all know the saga of the Batgirl movie at this point; The DC movie starred Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl, but Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the movie last summer, despite the fact that it was nearly finished post-production. The move was said to take advantage of a tax write-down, but it may also be that the film just wasn’t all that good. During yesterday’s DC press event, DC Studios’ Peter Safran commented on Batgirl, saying that the studio made the right choice to drop the movie as it would have hurt the DC brand.

“I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes,” Peter Safran said. “That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.” Safran added that Batgirl will inevitably be included in their new plan for the DC Universe somewhere down the road.

Peter Safran has also spoken with Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and others involved in the movie, with the intention that they will work together on future DC projects. “I spoke to Adil [El Arbi] and Bilall [Fallah] — the directors — last week, we were chatting. We’d love to be in business with all those folks,” Safran said. “Christina Hodson wrote it. Some people are already back in business with us. As I said, a lot of talented people were involved, but the film just was not releasable. It would not have been able to compete in the theatrical marketplace; it was built for the small screen. So, again, I think it was not an easy decision, but they made the right decision by shelving it.”

In addition to Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, Batgirl also starred J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon, Brendan Fraser as Ted Carson/Firefly, Jacob Scipio as Anthony Bressi, Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, and Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman. The film was developed for HBO Max, but there was talk of it getting a theatrical release before the studio decided to shove it in a vault.