Joss Whedon's reported departure from Batgirl presents Warner Bros. with a chance to hire the female director that the superheroine deserves, while also helping studio duplicate its success with Wonder Woman rather than its failure with Justice League.

Considering his history working on the first two Avengers films and TV shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, Whedon wasn't a particularly bad choice to helm a solo film starring Barbara Gordon. However, he wasn't the right choice, either.

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Once praised for his ability to craft female characters, Whedon's reputation has taken a number of hits in recent years. His much-touted feminism came into question following his problematic depiction of Black Widow in Age of Ultron, a film that was met with extreme backlash after its release, in part due to the revelation that he'd snuck a misogynistic British slur into the first Avengers movie. Behind-the-scenes, Whedon came under fire last year when Kai Cole, his ex-wife, penned an article alleging a pointed discrepancy between his professed feminism and his treatment of her during their marriage.

Justice League, the director's first foray into the DC Extended Universe, has also met with a lot of negativity. Fan reaction to Whedon's contributions to the film has been less than stellar, with thousands calling for the release of a cut that omits his work altogether. The fact of the matter is, Whedon just wasn't the right choice to direct Batgirl anymore. And now that he's off the project, Warner Bros. has the perfect opportunity to continue to bring new, diverse voices into superhero films.

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The fact is, the majority of directors working on superhero films are men. There's a clear lack of women and people of color being entrusted with blockbuster franchises throughout Hollywood. However, films directed and featuring women and people of color continue to succeed at the box-office. Simply look at the success of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman and Marvel's Black Panther to understand why Warner Bros. should seek out a female director to helm Batgirl. Wonder Woman earned over $800 million at the box-office, breaking numerous records in the process and even beating fellow DCEU film Justice League at the box-office. Black Panther earned more in its first four days than Justice League did over its entire domestic run.

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A big part of the success those films experienced resulted from the palpable excitement surrounding them. Both were incredibly well-reviewed, which helped to drive positive publicity and a ton of social media buzz. Wonder Woman, for example, was Tumblr's most popular movie of 2017 and, prior to its release, the most tweeted about movie on Twitter. Black Panther has also been a social media phenomenon, exemplified in the success of events like the #BlackPantherChallenge. Part of the excitement surrounding both movies absolutely comes from stellar reviews, however, women and people of color were also tremendously excited to see people that look like them finally represented, both on-screen and behind the camera.

Of course, diverse superhero movies don't just do well because people want to see themselves represented. The creative teams behind Wonder Woman and Black Panther brought their own unique perspectives to those films, resulting in great cinematic experiences. One of the major reasons for this success is that women and people of color are able to provide unique takes on characters that audiences just don't see enough of in mainstream media. They're able to bring their experiences to the characters that they're directing, often experiences that white men just don't have. When movies directed by women and people of color premiere, they bring audiences something different than the normal superhero fare that they're used to getting, which in turn helps to give audiences -- regardless of gender or race -- something unique and exciting.

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Giving a female director the chance to helm a project like Batgirl has potentially wide-ranging repercussions for the industry as a whole. Marvel and DC often re-hire successful directors to helm subsequent installments in a franchise, and sometimes they even give them other, bigger projects within the same universe -- as is the case with the Russo Brothers. Sometimes directors and writers even jump between the two studios. Hiring a female director for Batgirl doesn't just mean that Barbara Gordon's first solo film will address gender inequality in the production of DCEU films; it also means that more women will get more experience directing more blockbuster films, which will help eliminate the argument that women lack the experience required to direct tentpole films -- a notion often applied to female directors but not their male counterparts.

There are so many acclaimed female directors that could nail a Batgirl film, including Michelle MacLaren, Ava DuVernay and Greta Gerwig. Although there's no guarantee that any of them would actually sign on to make a DC film, there's certainly no shortage of female directors who would love to make their mark on the DCEU. More female directors may even lead to a female director helming a solo film starring a male hero at some point, which would go a long way to cracking mainstream Hollywood's glass ceiling.