Warner Bros cancels Batgirl film because of low budget

The previously announced Batgirl film with In the Heights actor Leslie Grace, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser will not be released at all, Warner Bros Discovery has announced that the film is in post-production, despite the fact that the film is already being announced.

The film was initially greenlit in 2021 by Ms Marvel directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah as part of a larger move by Warner Bros to create feature films for HBO Max streaming service. The studio said on Tuesday that the film would never get a release, either theatrically or on HBO Max.

It wouldn't give any further comment.

Batgirl was to have Keaton reprise his role as Batman, along with Grace as the titular hero Barbara Gordon, JK Simmons as Barbara's father, Commissioner Gordon and Fraser as the villain Firefly.

The Hollywood Reporter said that Batgirl's budget was a factor in the decision, as it climbed to nearly $90 m 74.1 m, A $130 m due to costs relating to it being shot during the Covid 19 epidemic. While the budget is low than the average DC superhero film, it was reportedly decided that it did not have the spectacle that audiences had come to expect from DC fare and wouldn't recoup its losses from being released.

An unnamed source who said the budget had actually exceeded $100 million and that the film had performed so poorly during early test screenings that Warner Bros decided to cut its losses was cited by the New York Post on Tuesday.

Sources told the New York Post that they think an unimaginable Batgirl is going to be irredeemable.

The film is one of the most expensive cancelled cinematic projects that has ever been cancelled.

The move comes amid a change in leadership since Warner Bros merged with Discovery in May 2021. Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who recently oversaw swinging cuts at CNN, including shutting down its $300 m streaming service CNN one month after it launched, is reportedly prioritising cost-cutting and refocusing the studio on streaming projects.

Since the Warner Bros Discovery merger, several shows including Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Last OG and Chad have been cancelled, while a DC Comics film of The Wonder Twins that is currently in development has also been canned, according to sources who said the decision to cancel Batgirl would allow the studio to take a tax write-down.