Batgirl has been pulled from the DC Expanded Universe. The movie won’t stream on HBO Max or in theatres at all. The studio decided to pull the movie after they found that it didn’t live up to their expectations.
And that is after they spent $70 million. Can you believe that? There are so many things I can do with $70 million. Let’s see, make an actual Batgirl movie…or better yet: make a $70 million television series with some good television actors and special effects for six episodes.
The $70m cancellation is yet another failure of Warner Brothers and DC when it comes to the big screen. Former failures include but are not limited to Batman vs Superman, the first Suicide Squad movie, and The Justice League movie by Joss Whedon.
Why was Batgirl canceled?
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Brothers, said the following about the cancellation: “We’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it. We have done a reset when it comes to the release strategy behind movies of any kind”, Zaslav said. As one part of that, “There will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC,” he said. “It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney.”
This basically means that either the movie didn’t fit the direction the studio is taking or the movie was just terribad. I am guessing it is the first one because every movie that you release sets a precedent for the next.
And if the first movie fails to do so then you may be able to fix some parts but definitely not all. Or you get a universe reset like DC does with 52, The New 52, or Crisis on Infinite Earths. All of them are resets that happened in quick succession without a proper strategy for the aftermath.
Zaslav continued and added the following argument for the Batgirl cancellation:
Having pored over “all the data,” Zaslav explained that “our conclusion is that with expensive direct-to-streaming movies — in terms of how people are consuming them on the platform, how often people buy a service for it, and how it gets nourished over time — there is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters. So, this idea of expensive films going to streaming… we cannot find an economic case for it. And so we’re making a strategic shift. ”
That argument actually makes sense. But it also shows that Warner Brothers and DC movies never had an actual strategy for the movie to be a success. Or they changed their strategy while the movie was filming, which is another indication that DC doesn’t really know what they are doing.
“We’re not going to launch your movie until it’s ready. We’re not going to launch a movie to make a quota. And we’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it,” Zaslav explained. “Particularly with DC, where we think we want to pivot and we want to elevate and we want to focus.”
“The objective is to grow the DC brand, to grow the DC characters,” he continued. “But also, our job is to protect the DC brand, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Ok, that last sentence makes sense. Protecting your brand is critical for success. But let’s take a look at the DC brand. Almost none of the movies made it to the 1 billion except for the Joker featuring Joaquin Phoenix. Even worse: Most of the DCEU movies flopped or received extremely negative reviews.
The only movies that actually got somewhat positive reviews are Man of Steel and Wonder Woman. The Justice League: The Snyder Cut received extremely positive reviews but the release of that movie was very shady featuring Twitter bots and death threats from Zack Snyder’s social media army. That was a big hit that DCEU took and I am surprised that they haven’t been knocked out by that. Instead, they got up again and made a new movie schedule.
DC Expanded Universe lacks direction
What DC didn’t want back then was to create something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe: creating solo hero movies and then having them come together in an ensemble movie.
Instead, they did what they did in their animated universe: Create an ensemble movie and then spawn off new episodes in the animated Justice League animated television series. Which worked for their DC Animated department because the follow-up was substantial. Instead, the DCEU never followed up with anything substantial.
They are strongly indicating that they actually will set up a bunch of movies that will lead to an ensemble movie of some kind. Robert Pattinson’s Batman, Black Adam and Suicide Squad (despite bombing at the Box Office) would be great starting points for a new universe.
If you added movies like Green Lantern, Superman, The Flash and include Wonder Woman you would actually have the founding members of DC’s comicbook Justice League and then have another ensemble movie. But that’s just my point; they have had so many plans that were canceled.
Many movies bombed at the Box Office. And a lot of controversies involving Warner Brothers and Zack Snyder and dark and shady practices involving Twitterbots have hurt the DC brand a lot.
I am not looking forward to seeing any DCEU movie at all. I haven’t even watched Suicide Squad by James Gunn. Gunn is the director who made my favorite movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Guardians of the Galaxy vol.1 and 2. Which says a lot. Same goes for the Peacemaker show featuring John Cena.
It is not that I am not curious about the shows, it is more that I am disillusioned by DC. And I watched the Cloak & Dagger TV show as well as The Inhumans. Which are regarded as some of the worst Marvel Cinematic TV shows.
Reactions of the cast and directors of the canceled Batgirl movie
The cast and directors were incredibly disappointed by the last minute pull from theaters and HBO Max. That makes sense ofcourse. Director duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah released a joint statement on social media.
“We are saddened and shocked by the news. We still can’t believe it. As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves. Maybe one day they will insha’Allah.”
“Our amazing cast and crew did a tremendous job and worked so hard to bring Batgirl to life. We are forever grateful to have been part of that team. It was a dream to work with such fantastic actors like Michael Keaton, JK Simmons, Brendan Fraser, Jacob Scipio, Corey Johnson, Rebecca Front, and especially the great Leslie Grace, who portrayed Batgirl with so much passion, dedication, and humanity.”
“In any case, as huge fans of Batman since we were little kids, it was a privilege and an honor to have been a part of the DCEU, even if it was for a brief moment. Batgirl For Life.”
While actress Leslie Grace had the following to say on her personal Instagram page:
Querida familia! On the heels of the recent news about our movie “Batgirl,” I am proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland. I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged relationships for a lifetime in the process! To every Batgirl fan – THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, “my own damn hero!” #Batgirl for life
Personally, I hope that they will release the movie one day or that someone at Warner Brothers will leak the movie to the internet because, after all this negativity, it makes me want to watch the movie.
Is the DCEU fixable?
The DCEU took another hit with the cancellation of Batgirl. The press conference of David Zaslav indicates that DCEU is yet taking down a movie strategy in favor of yet another one. This is the umpth time that Warner Brothers and DC have done this. For fans, it is confusing about what it is they want.
We hoped the Snyderverse would have become a thing. Or the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix would create its’ Batman. As Tim Burton’s Joker once said: This town needs an enema! And the Joker movement created by Phoenix’ movie screamed for one.
In a previous DCEU post, I wrote about the aimless direction of Warner Brothers and DC. Nothing has changed since then. If anything, things have gone down instead of up. This isn’t just because DC or Warner Brothers are doing a bad job, it mostly shows that creating a movie universe is complex and that you really need a plan, the right people, the right timing to have it all come together successfully.
As long as there is no mission or a clear vision, the DCEU will wander aimlessly throughout the movie swamp they created themselves. DC has great writers and great artists, so there is no lack of creativity in their house of ideas. I mean you have Geoff Johns, Brian Michael Bendis, John Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr., Ivan Reis. And with the Warner Brothers directory of directors and actors, casting agencies and whatever else you need to create a movie, what exactly is the holdup?
Please let me know in the comments how you think the DCEU can be fixed!
