In Honor of Batgirl, DCEU Cast and Crew are Holding 'Funeral Screenings' for the Canceled Movie
Canceling Batgirl while deep in production, delaying Aquaman 2 and Shazam 2, and brushing The Flash assault drama under the rug—The DCEU is definitely in rough shape right now. Behind-the-scenes DCEU drama has managed to reach the mainstream since the days of Zak Snyder, but the recent cancelation of the $90 million Batgirl movie might just take the cake. The HBO Max/Go movie was already deep in postproduction, only needing visual effects and film scoring before the movie was pulled from the pipeline and shelved indefinitely.
No doubt that the cast and crew signed NDAs well before shooting, so the details are left to speculation. But one anonymous actor shared his opinion on the matter using colorful words. The actor, who reportedly played a minor role in the movie, called Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav an “imbecile,” criticized him for “cowardice,” and felt “terrible” for the directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and main actress Leslie Grace.
Batgirl was expected to introduce a new era of DCEU streaming movies to the audience, bringing in big names like Michael Keaton to reprise his role as Batman and J.K. Simmons to return as James Gordon. Even Brendan Fraser was cast to play supervillain Firefly.
The cast and crew have shared their own disappointment with Warner Bros’ decision, albeit with less volatile words. But in honor of the film they spent months making, they will be holding not-so-secret “funeral screenings” of the movie at the Warner Bros. Lot. Everyone involved with production will get to see the rough cut of the movie before it’s locked away in someone’s hard drive forever. We expect plenty of hugs and tears at the secret screening before the movie is put away for good.
In a video, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah—who also directed the pilot and finale for Marvel’s Ms. Marvel—shared that when they received the news, they discovered that they had been immediately blocked from accessing the server with all the footage.
“The movie was gone and we didn’t have any access to the footage [and we weren’t] able to see it for ourselves again,” Adil El Arbi said in an Instagram video. “That was pretty harsh.”
“It was painful, I was emotional, it was shocking. Especially for our crew and cast. We were like a family—it was intense. We were passionate to make this movie,” added Bilall Fallah.
Fans won’t be able to attend the funeral screening, but one way fans can pay homage to Batgirl is by supporting the duo’s upcoming film Rebel, which is about fighting back against radicalism and being the hero of your own story.
“Maybe by watching Rebel, maybe we could imagine what Batgirl could have been,” said Adil El Arbi.
Rest in Peace, unreleased Batgirl movie.
