Batgirl Directors Call Film’s Cancellation a Traumatic Experience, Would Work on Another DC Film With One Request

By now the story of DC and Warner Bros. Pictures’ Batgirl movie is one of the most infamous cases of “almost was” that we’ve seen in modern Hollywood. Batgirl was greenlit by DC/WB, was fully filmed and completed, and was just about to get into its marketing and promotional run when it was suddenly shelved by the new executive team that took over after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. 

Batgirl and other fan-anticipated content (Scoob!) were canceled to serve as tax write-offs on projects that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav viewed as potentially bigger financial losers if marketed and released. Needless to say, that fiscal decision to scrap Batgirl certainly was a blow to all those who put creative and technical effort into making the film – including directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. 

In a new interview, El Arbi and Fallah talk about what it was like having Batgirl get the ax after years of hard work on the film. In short, Bilall called it nothing less than a “traumatic experience” in their careers, adding that the pair of filmmakers when through “all the emotions” in dealing with the situation. 

“There was still a lot of work to be done but they just said it was financial decisions and so that’s that and the movie can never be released,” El Arbi explained, with Fallah adding that they feel the most disappointment for the cast of actors that worked on the film, including big-name veterans like Brendan Fraser, JK Simmons, and Michael Keaton as Batman  – not to mention the breakout role of Batgirl for actress Leslie Grace. 

Still, El Arbi and Fallah aren’t burning any bridges when it comes to the possibiity of working in the DC Universe again – provided one condition is met, of course: 

“We’d love to work for a DC project in the future but the one request is that the movie comes out. That’s the only request,” the pair said, with Bilall making it clear that “We are still fans of the DC universe.” 

Will DC’s Batgirl Movie Ever Get Released? 

As stated, Batgirl and other project that Warner Bros. already had in production were shelved as part of a money-saving strategy of using the projects as tax write-offs. It was done within a small window of transitional opportunity following the merger of WB and Discovery. The conditions of those write-offs are pretty explicit in stating that none of the footage can ever be shown, leading to rumors that WB went so far as physically destroying all reels of Batgirl film. 

That’s all to day: there’s almost no chance the movie will ever see the light of day, and El Arbi and Fallah know it: 

“There’s nothing that we can do to influence them,” El Arbi said, offering the even grimmer outlook that “there’s still a lot of work to be done and I don’t know if they are really going to go back for that.” 

NEXT: Could A Brendan Fraser Oscar Win Save DC’s Batgirl Movie?