Batgirl Star Leslie Grace Debunks Nightwing Casting Rumor

Last fall, it was announced that Bad Boys For Life star Jacob Scipio had joined the cast of HBO Max's Batgirl, though at the time there were no details about who he would play in the eagerly anticipated film. That lack of details led to a great deal of speculation including that Scipio could be playing Dick Grayson/Nightwing in the film. Now, however, Batgirl star Leslie Grace has debunked that rumor, confirming that Scipio is playing not Dick Grayson, but Gotham mob boss Anthony Bressi. Grace confirmed Scipio's role in an interview with E! News (via The Direct).

While Grace debunked the idea of Scipio as Nightwing, the interview doesn't indicate that she entirely ruled out the appearance of Nightwing in Batgirl, something that would make sense generally given the relationship between Barbara and Dick over the years in comics. However, Grace did speak a bit about her character's journey in the film, stating that audience would see the character grow through the film which could indicate that this chapter of Batgirl's story won't necessarily feature Nightwing.

"There's not a lot of nuance in her thinking at the beginning of the story, and she gets herself into a lot of these sticky situations and has to discover a lot about parts of herself in order to get herself out of them… so you'll get to see her grow from that kind of perspective of the world and I really, really love that," Grace said. "It's like all your favorite superheroes, you get to see their origin story. You get to see them mature."

Batgirl is directed by Bad Boys for Life's Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi, with a script written by Christina Hodson, whose work includes Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and the upcoming The Flash movie. The film is expected to see JK Simmons reprising his role as Commissioner James Gordon, Michael Keaton reprising his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Brendan Fraser joining the cast as Firefly, Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, and Rebecca Front, Corey Johnson, and Ethan Kai cast in currently-unknown roles.

"This is only my second role, but I'm learning from my colleagues and other friends of mine that you put a little bit of yourself into each character," Grace explained in an interview with Entertainment Tonight earlier this year. "And just in the bit of research that I've been doing leading into pre-production, I've learned a lot of things about Barbara that are very in line with me."

"She's someone who's been underestimated by even her own dad and being the youngest kid, sometimes you're insulated from all of the tough stuff of life and she's so eager to prove to herself and to everybody else that there's some things that she can handle," Grace continued. "So, this journey is definitely going to show me a lot of that. I feel like I'm on an endless journey of proving to myself what barriers I can break, what limits I can break for myself and I'm excited to put a little bit of that eagerness and drive and, like, almost a bit of stubbornness into Barbara's character."

Batgirl is set to be released at a later date on HBO Max.