Tuesdays are a day DC fans often look forward to with anticipation and excitement. However, this past Tuesday, DC dropped a different kind of bombshell issue. Warner Brothers and DC had decided to scrap the near-completed Batgirl film, scheduled to be released on HBO Max later this year.
Over the past few days, the Batgirl film has appeared to not be a very cohesive project, with Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav stating that “Our objective is to grow the DC brand, to grow the DC characters, but also our job is to protect the DC brand…”, insinuating the film wouldn’t quite meet the studio’s expectations.
For fans who have been invested in this project since its announcement in 2017, this is a hard-hitting blow in a quest to see one of comic’s most iconic heroines taking her place in the spotlight without a shot to her spine. The casting for the film offered more diversity and representation than previously seen in other DC projects, with Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon and Ivory Aquino as the DC Extended Universe’s first transgendered heroine. (Note: Nicole Maines was the first transgender hero on television in the Arrowverse, but her character, Dreamer, was adapted/descended from a character not originally written as transgender. Dreamer made her first comic appearance this past year in DC: Pride #1, and then in main continuity in Superman: Son of Kal-El #13.)
The loss of Batgirl on HBOMax underscores the significant issue of DC’s lack of representation of diversity and gender inclusivity. The cancellation of Batgirl (and the rumored scrapping of the Supergirl and Zatanna solo film) removes just about all of the female-led live-action DC projects currently announced. Set photos from Batgirl also indicated that the film would set the stage for the already announced Black Canary spin-off on HBOMax, but Zaslav’s rumored new policy of theatrical releases leaves Black Canary in limbo as well. If Black Canary is scrapped and the rumors of Supergirl and Zatanna’s shelving are true, DC would have no female-led superhero stories in the works. And judging from the merged Warner Brother Discovery’s press release, the executives aren’t feeling particularly motivated to make superhero content with any kind of female focus.
What makes this additionally frustrating is that the release of The Flash hasn’t been affected and Warner Brothers hasn’t made any type of statement to address the current controversy surrounding star Ezra Miller. Warner Brothers continuing to support and promote a project whose lead has just been served for a felony burglary charge on top of their history of disorderly conduct and multiple restraining orders, as well as claims of grooming and predatory behavior and leading a cult feels odd.
After the controversy and investigation surrounding the Whedon Justice League, I feel like Warner Brothers would be very actively promoting and developing more diverse and female-led projects, especially Batgirl. Whedon had originally been attached to the Batgirl film, but dropped out in 2018, less than three months after the disastrous release of his version of Justice League. Batgirl was the perfect footing for DC and Warner Brother’s executives to show that they took the claims of racism and misogyny from the earlier projects to heart, but instead, the toxic parts of the DC fanbase have one more piece of fodder to their dumpster-fire opinions and other fans are left disappointed and disillusioned.
Pages and Panels 
Leave a comment