DC's Peter Safran Says Batgirl Was 'Not Releaseable' (& He's Probably Right)
The future of DC's movies has been up in the air for a while now, but fans finally have a clearer picture of what to expect thanks to a January 31 announcement from the new heads of DC Studios — James Gunn and Peter Safran. On the film side of things, we're getting two projects featuring Kryptonians, including "Superman: Legacy" and "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow." There are some welcome surprises, including "Swamp Thing" and "The Authority," and of course, Batman will have prime placement in the new DCU with an adaptation of "The Brave and the Bold," which will see the Caped Crusader team up with his son, Damian Wayne.
The state of the DC movie multiverse has been pretty hit-or-miss as of late, but it's still fresh in fans' minds. It's hard not to think of what might have been, including what things would've looked like had DC and Warner Bros. decided to release "Batgirl," which was pretty much done when Warner Bros. canceled it. It would've shown another side to the world of Batman with Leslie Grace in the titular role and recent comeback star Brendan Fraser as the villainous Firefly.
Among the recently released DC lineup, "Batgirl" was nowhere to be found, so it seems clear it won't get a surprise release any time soon. However, Safran did speak about the project, and while he didn't have a hand in canceling it, he ultimately agreed with the decision.
Batgirl will inevitably feature into the DCU at some point
While we'll never get a chance to see Leslie Grace's Batgirl in action, it sounds like Peter Safran is confident the character will pop up in the DCU sooner or later. He explained as much during the recent DCU presentation: "Batgirl's a character that inevitably we will include in our story" (via ComicBook.com). With Damian Wayne coming into the picture for "The Brave and the Bold," there's a good chance we'll see other members of the Bat-family pop up, so there's always a chance she could feature into that film or a sequel down the road.
Still, there's no doubt fans wanted to see a standalone "Batgirl" movie, and the one with Leslie Grace would've scratched that itch. Safran went on to talk about how he feels about the last-minute cancelation: "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. 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."
Canceling a movie when it's pretty much done surely wasn't done lightly. We can only take the word of those who have actually seen it, so it'd be best to put the project in the rearview mirror. Safran went on to compliment those who worked on it behind the scenes, including screenwriter Christina Hobson and directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Clearly, Safran doesn't want to burn any bridges, and "Batgirl" will be forever relegated to a great Hollywood "What if."