Batgirl is destined to play a role in the DC Universe sooner or later, according to DC Studios co-chair and co-CEO Peter Safran.
Safran discussed Batgirl's future at a press event to announce the DCU's initial slate of film and TV projects, reports Deadline. "Batgirl is inevitably a character we'll include in our story," Safran said, referencing the overarching continuity he's developing with fellow DC Studios boss James Gunn. Safran also addressed the canceled HBO Max Batgirl movie, insisting that Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav was right to scrap the production. "[Batgirl] would have hurt DC," he said. "It would have hurt those people involved."
Despite Safran's claims that Batgirl was "unreleasable," at least one of its cast members is eager for footage from the film to one day see the light of day. Leslie Grace, who portrayed Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, said in a recent interview that she would be happy for Batgirl scenes to be made public so that fans can experience some of the film's biggest moments. "I feel so blessed, all in all, that I have those memories and hopefully maybe in some future, some clips will arise and people will get to enjoy a little bit of it," Leslie said.
James Gunn Reveals the DCU Slate
Gunn and Safran haven't given any indication that Batgirl footage will be made available via official channels, and the pair's focus is primarily on future DCU projects. Details of the revamped DCU's first 10 movies and TV shows came to light on Jan. 31, with Gunn talking through each production in a video shared via his Twitter account. Subtitled "Gods and Monsters," this first wave of releases is headlined by a mixture of DC icons (including Superman and Batman) as well as lesser-known characters, such as Swamp Thing and Booster Gold.
Gunn and Safran's DCU roadmap also incorporates several legacy franchises, some of which will be positioned under the "Elseworlds" banner going forward. According to Gunn, defining which properties do and don't exist within the mainstream DCU was done to bring greater cohesion to the shared universe, something he noted it lacked in the past. "The history of DC is pretty f---ed up," Gunn said. "They were just giving away IP like they were party favors to any creators. What we are going to do is we're going to promise that everything from our first project forward is going to be unified. But we will say that we've gotten very lucky [inheriting these] next four projects."
Source: Deadline