As memories of Ben Affleck’s Batman fade in the background, Warner Bros. and DC Films are readying a new crop of aspiring Bat-actors. Robert Pattinson will play the Caped Crusader in The Batman, which is coming next year, and now, The A.V. Club reports that In The Heights star Leslie Grace will play Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, in a new movie coming to HBO Max!
The Batgirl movie will be directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and written by Christina Hodson, who has credits on Bumblebee, Birds of Prey and the upcoming Flash movie. Beyond the personnel involved, we don’t know much about it. Will this link up with Robert Pattinson’s new Batman movie? (Jeffrey Wright plays Barbara’s father Jim Gordon in The Batman; it would be cool to see him pull double duty.) Will it link up with the Batwoman show on The CW, where Javicia Leslie plays the title role? Will it stand on its own like Joker? And that’s before answering any questions about the story. Who will Batgirl fight? What’s her arc? Why don’t I stop asking questions and just enjoy the movie when it comes out?
Warner Bros. wields Batgirl as a weapon in the streaming wars
Batgirl will be the first DC Films movie to exclusively launch on HBO Max. That represents an escalation in the streaming wars; if Disney can launch exclusive Marvel stuff on Disney+, then we can launch exclusive DC stuff on HBO Max, I assume Warner Bros. is thinking.
As for a release date, I wouldn’t expect the Batgirl movie to arrive any earlier than late in 2022, if not 2023.
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