The DCEU Is Moving Away From The Bat-Family

As the DCEU continues to expand, Batman and the Bat-family's role in the universe seems to be shrinking. At least, that's what the Cathy Yan-directed Birds of Prey seems to indicate. The Margot Robbie-fronted film will introduce Cassandra Cain, who many fans will know as the Batgirl successor to originator Barbara Gordon.

Birds of Prey is one of many Harley Quinn-centric films in development and appears to have taken precedent over Suicide Squad 2, Gotham City Sirens and a Joker love story. This brings with it a host of other female DC characters from both sides of the aisle, some of them with bigger DCEU implications. At one point, Batman-related movies looked to be the universe's future. Now, considerably less so.

Cain won't be dawning any Bat-symbols, instead appearing as the assassin she's trained as in her origins, but her role suggests some interesting developments in the timeline. Between this and the lack of material developments on both the solo Batman flick and Nightwing, as well as what's already been established as canon in this universe, the Dark Knight appears to be taking a backseat for the immediate future.

This Page: Has Cassandra Cain Replaced Barbara Gordon As Batgirl?
Page 2: Where Is The Bat-Family In The DCEU?

Has Cassandra Cain Replaced Barbara Gordon As Batgirl?

A bruised Cassandra Cain looks down at someone and says Hi

Introduced in 1999 by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott, Cassandra Cain is an Asian girl raised by assassin David Cain to be the ultimate killer and perfect bodyguard for Ra's Al-Ghul. Unable to read or write, the only thing Cassandra can understand is body language, which she can read on a superhuman level, being able to predict people's movements to an incredible degree. After performing her first kill under David's watch, she gets an inkling that what she's doing is wrong and flees, eventually re-surfacing later as one of Oracle's agents in Gotham City.

Cassandra's presence in Birds of Prey is interesting. It places the timeline of Barbara Gordon in an odd position. Cassandra was first brought in as an agent of Oracle, the moniker Barbara operated under post-paralysis in the Killing Joke. As a tech guru and information wiz, Oracle would be an incredible asset to Batman and the city of Gotham in their struggles against evil. Cain would eventually earn Batman's trust as an asset to the team and become the next Batgirl under Gordon's guidance.

The assumption (and current word) is that Barbara Gordon already exists in the DCEU, and that she has already been paralyzed and become Oracle (and the Batgirl cowl has been unused for a period of time). That's a lot of classic comics history to gloss over in a movie, especially given that it includes at least one of Batman's most beloved stories. And if they go a different route and re-write Cain's story, that's a very hefty set of alterations since so much of it is tied to Oracle – the two even lived together for a not insignificant amount of time. Either way, there's a lot of questions to be answered.

Justice League Already Cut A Reference To The Bat-Family

The behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the DCEU between Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League has totally reshaped the DCEU; after the controversy surrounding Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. effectively scrapped director Zack Snyder's plans to set-up for Justice League 2, and reshot and re-edited massive chunks of the movie as a tonal DCEU course correction. The film released in theaters wasn't well-received and didn't make a lot of money, but the band-aid was ripped off.

One of the alterations some keen-eyed fans noticed was a line from Commissioner Gordon that was changed seemingly to undermine plans for an established canon. During the scene where the Commissioner meets the Bat and the rest of his League friends on the rooftop, in trailers he says “it's good to see you playing well with others again”, meanwhile the final version cuts out the word “again.” One plays on the implication that Batman at one point had a team or Robin by his side, the other doesn't, removing a subtle nod to the existence of the Bat family.

We know Batman does have a past with sidekicks due to the Robin costume in BvS, which planted the idea that this Batman had worked with Jason Todd as Robin, who was presumably killed by The Joker as in the A Death in the Family comics storyline. Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck's Dark Knight was intended to be an older, more weathered take on the character, carrying with him all this baggage from years of horror and tragedy in watching over Gotham. In moving away from Snyder's plans, Warner Bros. likely also wanted to wipe the slate clean of hints to other prominent characters so they could introduce them with as little over-hanging history as possible, though that still brings into question other creative decisions.

Page 2 of 2: Where Is The Bat-Family In The DCEU?

Matt Reeves' Batman Could Be Younger, Or Not In The DCEU

As long as Affleck has been cast as Batman, fans have been clamoring for a solo Batman picture. There will always be an audience for the Bat and the Oscar-winner brings an extra level of grandeur to the whole idea. But aside from Matt Reeves directing, there's been almost nothing definitive on what kind of story it will tell, or what version of Bruce Wayne we'll be seeing.

The current rumor is that Reeves looking to cast a Bruce that's 15-20 years younger than the one Affleck depicts, to do a loose adaptation of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One, the classic volume that chronicles the Dark Knight's first year on the harsh streets of Gotham. Affleck's sentiment on the matter has flip-flopped, the latest being that he's interested in dawning the cowl some more. Doing Year One would be a smart move, opening up an opportunity for recast that isn't just replacing Affleck and hoping for a seamless transition, and telling a story that inherently creates a soft reboot of the timeline.

But there's been all sorts of rumors and hearsay about whether The Batman will be in the DCEU. Now, literally, everything could have changed in the interim given that there isn't even a script yet, but if it is standalone, that would be problematic for the canon of the DCEU. It'd effectively make Birds of Prey the sole arbiter of whatever's going on with Gotham, using two characters, Cassandra Cain and Harley Quinn, that have a close proximity to the Batman. This isn't questioning that film's ability to function without the Big Bad Bat, but the first question many fans are going to have going in is “what's Batman up to?” and to not address that elephant would, at the very least, be a missed opportunity for a great tease.

Where Is The Bat-Family?

Summer last year, Geoff Johns seemed all in on bringing the wider Bat-cast to the big screen. At the time he championed the now-defunct Joss Whedon Batgirl film, and made it very clear they wanted to build out Batman's world like the comics. Since then, a lot has happened, namely Justice League failed and Warner Bros. seemed to decide to change direction more than a couple of times. Obviously, Whedon's Batgirl is away, the project presumably waiting for a new team to have a look when the time's right, but the Nightwing film from Bill Dubuque and Chris McKay also seems to have quietly died, chewed up in the machine of studio development.

Even looking at what we do know, it doesn't seem like this version of Batman was ever made to be the center of his own wider Gotham. Robin's dead and the costume retired in Batman v Superman, and there's no sign of other heroes operating in the city; Batman is seen dealing with both Deadshot and Harley Quinn alone in their backstory pre-Suicide Squad.

Which is probably the question facing Reeves, Yan and whomever else is in-line for a Bat-project at Warner Bros. - how do they navigate what Snyder's movies establish? What do they keep and what do they retcon, and how do they do that with as little damage as possible? The last thing anyone wants is another X-Men situation similar to Fox where the timeline is literally all over the place. As it stands, the best way is to sidestep and, like the rest of the DCEU, focus on the individual stories - stories that go beyond the classic Bat Family.