The cast shortlist for the role of Barbara Gordon in DC's upcoming Batgirl movie has been revealed. Warner Bros. has been working on getting a Batgirl movie off the ground for years and, at one point, Joss Whedon was set to write and direct the film. Whedon left the project in 2018 after being unable to crack the story, but Warner Bros. has found a new creative team for the film. Christina Hodson, who has written Bumblebee, Birds of Prey, and 2022's The Flash, will now write the screenplay with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the pair behind 2020's Bad Boys for Life, directing.
Plot details are unknown at this time, but it is known that Barbara Gordon will be the character under the cowl in Batgirl. Barbara is the daughter of Commissioner James Gordon, a prolific Batman character that has been played by the likes of Gary Oldman, J.K. Simmons, and Jeffrey Wright in 2022's The Batman. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Batgirl will head straight to HBO Max, the first major DC film to do so amidst a larger effort for the DCEU to expand into original streaming series and films.
Now, the shortlist for the highly coveted titular has been revealed by Deadline. Warner Bros. executives are expected to start testing a slew of actors for the role sometime this week. Among the stars set to test are Zoey Deutch, Leslie Grace, and Isabella Merced. Haley Lu Richardson's name was also mentioned, but it is unclear if she has dropped out of the testing process before the announcement.
The Batgirl movie has the chance to launch any actress who plays the character to a new level. Deutch has starred in several high-profile films and television shows, including Ryan Murphy's Netflix series The Politician and 2019's Zombieland: Double Tap. Merced has several credits to her name and the actress most recently starred in the live-action Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Grace only has one acting credit to her name - John Chu and Lin Manuel Miranda's musical In The Heights, which garnered critical acclaim earlier this year. Richardson, meanwhile, has starred in a collection of indie films.
DC is clearly gunning for a burgeoning young actress instead of a big name player for the role of Barbara Gordon. This could help them lock the actress in for multiple films in Batgirl turns out to be as successful as they hope. The DCEU is still very much experimenting what their next phase of films is going to look like and while Batgirl may be a key player in that, only time will tell how well the movie performs on HBO Max.
Source: Deadline
