This is a decision that has caused a lot of ink to flow. For several hours now, the world of cinema has been in turmoil, and for good reason, according to several American media, Warner Bros has made the decision to cancel the release of the film Batgirl, yet filmed and ready to be released on the HBO Max platform. The reason behind this whim? Test screenings deemed catastrophic and which could further damage the image of DC Comics, which is trying to find a new identity in cinema. It is all the more regrettable that the film had been in production for more than two years, that it required 70 million of investment and that it would have allowed the singer Leslie Grace to begin her acting career on the wheel caps. Worse still, in the film, Michael Keaton was to resume his role as Batman, alongside Brandan Fraser, also awaiting a return to Hollywood through the front door. Directed by the duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life and Miss Marvel), Batgirl was however finished since last March and the film was currently in post-production for a release at the end of 2022. Suffice to say that it must be hot on the side of the artists...
This drastic decision would be according to Variety and The Wrap a change of strategy of the Warner group which is also in full internal restructuring after the takeover by the Discovery group last spring. With the success of Joker (1.074 billion dollars at the box office) and The Batman (770 million dollars at the box office), the idea is to reserve DC Comics films for the cinema with a large-scale production, which does not does not correspond to Batgirl, which had the budget for a small series. Batgirl is not the only film to be the victim of this drastic change of mentality, the animated film Scoob! Holiday Haunt (whose budget is estimated at 40 million dollars) has also been shelved. It's no longer spring cleaning, but summer cleaning for Warner Bros...
