Earlier in the week, it was revealed there was a four-woman shortlist for the role of Batgirl in the upcoming solo film, and it was announced yesterday In The Heights star Leslie Grace will star as Barbara Gordon.
Deadline originally broke the shortlist story and followed it up with this reveal.
Grace, coming off her breakout role in the musical, is seen very highly within Warner Bros, and it’s clear the studio wanted to keep the rising Afro-Latina star within their system.
The Dominican-American beat out strong contenders that included Isabella Merced, Zoey Deutch and Haley Lu Richardson. According to the site’s sources, it was Grace’s audition that sealed the deal.
Bad Boys For Life filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah will be directing the film, releasing exclusively on HBO Max, but no word on countries that don’t have the streamer.
However, that’ll be something to worry about closer to the time as in the UK. It’ll likely be a Sky Cinema exclusive (like Zack Snyder’s Justice League) or released in theatres like Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the latter.
Christina Hodson, a rising favourite at WB and DC, having written Birds of Prey and the upcoming Flash movie, penned the script, and while no details have been revealed, there have been rumours.
These have mainly come from The Illuminerdi that the story could be centring around the Year One comic as the supposed villain is described as a disgruntled former firefighter. One of Gordon’s villains in the comic was Firefly.
The site also states it’ll be a new actor to play her father, Commissioner Jim Gordon.
While both are incredibly likely, I still believe it should be taken with a pinch of salt.
I don’t know what to expect from the film, but Grace is a cracking choice, and her role in In The Heights does have an air of Barbara Gordon about her. All I hope is they go with this design for the costume because it’s the best the character has looked.
The Bear Cave 