DC Should Finally Release Batgirl, Here’s Why
Our writer argues there is no good reason for DC to keep the Batgirl movie under wraps.
If you’re a fan of both DC comics and superhero movies, then these have been some very dark years (and we’re not just talking about how you can hardly see anything during those awful CGI fight scenes). The quality of the movies has been all over the place (a marked contrast from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which mostly delivered hits…well, until movies like Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), but now Warner Bros. Discovery and James Gunn are promising a higher caliber of live-action DC content as well as the same kind of connected film and television universe that Marvel currently has. Along the way, though, this led to DC’s Batgirl film getting shelved despite being deep in post-production, and we’re here to tell you: in a world where we finally got the Snyder cut that fans wouldn’t stop crying about, there is no reason we shouldn’t get a Batgirl movie that was already nearly complete.
One simple reason to release the DC Batgirl film is that it was primarily canceled due to executives frequently changing their minds. The film was designed to be a direct-to-streaming HBO Max original, but executives later decided it needed a theatrical release to prop up DC’s bad slate of cinematic releases (looking at you, Shazam 2) before then deciding the film wouldn’t be good enough to compete in theaters. Quite frankly, there is no reason to not at least put it on HBO Max (you know, like they originally planned to) and let the fans (who are getting quite sick of losing content on the streaming platform) decide for themselves.
Another reason to release the DC Batgirl film is that we deserve to see Leslie Grace in action as the titular superhero. She turned in an amazing performance in the film In the Heights, and she clearly has a lot of potential as an actor. Plus, let’s be honest: with Gal Gadot possibly getting the boot from the DCU, it wouldn’t hurt for DC to increase its stable of strong female heroes (particularly ones that headline their own movies), just as it wouldn’t hurt fans to finally have a better cinematic Batgirl than Alicia Silverstone phoning it in back in 1997’s awful Batman and Robin.
Even if you don’t care much for Leslie Grace, another reason DC needs to release this Batgirl film is because of the other major talents in the film. If you didn’t already know, recent Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser is in this movie, and we’d probably watch that guy just read the phonebook at this point. Oh, and this was actually going to be the first movie where Michael Keaton returned to his iconic Batman role, so scrapping this film means less Keaton content (on that note, is anyone else still screaming that Warner-Discovery canceled the Batman Beyond movie, which would have had Keaton as the older mentor to a younger Caped Crusader?).
We’re not saying that DC’s unreleased Batgirl film would have been a cinematic masterpiece or anything, but ask yourself: could it really be worse than Black Adam and Shazam 2? Could it really make the company look any worse than them running a franchise into the ground for nearly a decade already has? DC desperately needs more decent content, and HBO Max subscribers are desperate for the platform to stop bleeding content, so the fans deserve to finally see this movie, just as loyal Batgirl fans deserve to see a cinematic adaptation of some of Babs Tarr’s iconic artwork based on the character’s newer design.
