The previously announced Batgirl movie starring actor Leslie Grace, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser will not be released at all, Warner Bros Discovery has unexpectedly announced, even though filming has already wrapped and the film is in post-production.
Directed by Marvel directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the film was initially greenlit in 2021 as part of a wider move at Warner Bros to create feature films specifically for the HBO Max streaming service. But the studio confirmed on Tuesday that the film would never get a theatrical release or on HBO Max.
He declined to comment further.
Batgirl was to have Keaton reprise his role as Batman, alongside Grace as the titular heroine Barbara Gordon, JK Simmons as Barbara’s father, Commissioner Gordon and Fraser as the villain Firefly.
The Hollywood Reporter said Batgirl’s budget was a factor in the decision, having ballooned to nearly $90 million (£74.1 million, A$130 million) due to related costs with his shot during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the budget is lower than the average DC superhero film, it was decided that it lacked “the spectacle that audiences have come to expect from DC fare” and would not recoup its losses from being released .
However, the New York Post, which broke the story on Tuesday, cited an unnamed source as saying that the budget had exceeded $100 million and that the film had performed so poorly during early screenings of evidence that Warner Bros. decided to cut its losses.
“They think a nondescript Batgirl will be irredeemable,” the source told the New York Post.
A minute after that story went live, he got a call from a rival studio executive who was devastated by the move. “He worked in this city for three decades and this is unprecedented bullshit right here.” https://t.co/A3aBLPulWz
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) August 2, 2022
The decision means the film is among the most expensive canceled film projects ever.
The move comes amid a leadership shakeup since Warner Bros. merged with Discovery in May 2021. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who recently oversaw sweeping cuts at CNN, including closing the its $300 million streaming service CNN+ a month after launching, is prioritizing. Cost reduction and studio reorientation in theatrical films over streaming projects.
Writing in Variety , Adam B Vary and Brent Lang noted that the decision to cancel Batgirl entirely would allow the studio to “write off the taxes,” citing sources who said it was “viewed internally as the most financially sound way to recover the price”. costs (at least, in an accountant’s ledger)”.
Several shows including Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, The Last OG and Chad have been canceled since the Warner Bros Discovery merger, while a DC Comics film of The Wonder Twins has also been shelved was in development.