Some Batgirl plot details, Easter eggs, and its place in the overall DC Extended Universe timeline have reportedly been revealed for the canceled movie. Just days ago, Warner Bros. Discovery made the shocking decision to completely axe the Batgirl movie, which had already finished filming on a reported $90 million production budget and was intended for a release on HBO Max. Warner Bros. released a statement explaining the unprecedented decision was due to a "strategic shift" under new CEO David Zaslav to focus more on theatrical tentpoles.
In the Heights breakout Leslie Grace led the Batgirl cast as the titular heroine Barbara Gordon alongside Justice League's J.K. Simmons as her father Commissioner Gordon, The Mummy trilogy's Brendan Fraser as the villain Firefly, and Michael Keaton returning as Batman. From Bad Boys For Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson, Batgirl was meant to be set in the DCEU, sometime after The Flash's multiverse story facilitated Keaton's return. Now, due to Batgirl's cancellation, more details about the DC film are being revealed.
On his podcast The Town, Matthew Belloni revealed some Batgirl plot details, Easter eggs, as well as the canceled movie's place in the DCEU timeline. Belloni spoke to someone who saw an early Batgirl test screening, who shared details about the villain, Firefly, and some of the film's references to famous DC characters. Read what Belloni shared below:
They were trying to figure out what the ending was but like the fundamental here – the stakes are small. Firefly is just a dude in a suit who may or may not have killed Batgirl's mother early on it was a fire or something I don't want to get into the details of the plot which he said very convoluted and involved multiple boyfriends and mob bosses and there may or may not have been a reference to Jason Todd, who is a big character in the DC Universe, but there's no Robin in this movie. They do show Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman mask, a nice little Easter egg, although Michelle Pfeiffer is not in the movie. This was supposed to come after Flash.
The first revelation about Batgirl's plot from Belloni's comments is that Fraser's villain, Firefly aka Ted Carson, would have killed Barbara's mother early on in the movie, which would have been an original backstory for the character rather than one adapted from the comics. Furthermore, the plot would have "involved multiple boyfriends and mob bosses" with Killing Eve's Ethan Kai playing Barbara's primary love interest, judging by set photos. One of the mob bosses was going to be Bad Boys for Life's Jacob Scipio as Anthony Bressi who, in the comics, is a mid-level mob boss in Gotham City.
Batgirl wouldn't have been a true comic book movie without some Easter eggs and apparently there were references to Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman from Tim Burton's 1992 Batman Returns and Jason Todd, who is the second character to become Robin in the comics. However, neither one of these characters were actually going to appear onscreen. Even though it may have been unnecessarily "convoluted," Batgirl's plot sounds like it could have been promising in some regards. With the cancellation coming just a few days ago, more plot details will likely be revealed in due time.
Source: The Town
