The powers at be at Warner Bros Discovery are looking to move Batgirl from its current release on HBO Max to a traditional theatre release.
According to Newsletter Puck’s Matthew Belloni (via comingsoon.net), two things have changed since the merger of Warner Bros and Discovery. The newly formed WBD have a change of strategy, and the success of The Batman, making $759 million (via Box Office Mojo) in cinemas, are potential reasons for shifting Batgirl over.
Furthermore, the report mentions that the recent issues at Netflix could have made CEO David Zaslav rethink plans to go “all-in” on streaming. Even though HBO Max is slowly growing in subscriptions, witnessing Netflix having its first drop in subscribers in over a decade may have slowed Zaslav’s plans of delivering all their content on the streaming service.
This move would follow Blue Beetle, which was also set to be released on the streamer, before WB saw the potential of having its first Latino superhero on the big screen and how important it would’ve been for millions of people.
I’m glad to see it looks like everyone sees the same in Batgirl as this has the potential of doing decently in the box office with families, especially little girls, and similar to Blue Beetle, will have the Latina demographic hopefully come as well.
As In The Heights star, Leslie Grace will be leading the film as Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City police commissioner James Gordon, who becomes Batgirl. The film will also star Brendan Fraser as the villain Firefly, J.K. Simmons (Zack Snyder’s Justice League) and Michael Keaton (Batman, Spotlight) as Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne/ Batman, respectively.
It’ll be interesting as Keaton was initially set to return in The Flash this year, but that movie has been pushed back again into next summer, and will that affect the release as this was following up months later? The studio will have to decide if Batgirl needs Flash to help set up this story or will can it work regardless.
I can see it as an Autumn/Christmas 2023 release if WB moves forward with the big screen option.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life) are directing the film and Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, The Flash) wrote the script.
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