Brendan Fraser will play pyromaniac villain Firefly in Batgirl movie

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 06: Brendan Fraser attends the premiere of AT&T Audience Network's 'Condor' at NeueHouse Hollywood on June 6, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 06: Brendan Fraser attends the premiere of AT&T Audience Network's 'Condor' at NeueHouse Hollywood on June 6, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)

And the Brandan Fraser career renaissance continues. The Mummy star is already mixing it up with a role in the DC superhero show Doom Patrol, in addition to landing the lead role in Darren Aronofsky’s next film The Whale. And now, Variety reports that he’ll continue venturing down the DC rabbit hole with a role in the upcoming Batgirl movie.

Specifically, he’ll play Firefly, a pyromaniac villain who’s been bopping around DC Comics in some form or another since the ’50s. Batgirl herself, aka Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara, will be played by In the Heights star Leslie Grace.

It’s great to see Fraser resurge like this. With movies like BedazzledGeorge of the Jungle and The Mummy franchise, he was a big name in Hollywood at one point, but faded over the years. But everything comes round again, and he’s currently having his own Matthew McConaughey-esque, Keanu Reeves-ish comeback.

When will Batgirl release? Will it be in theaters?

The Batgirl movie, which is being directed by filmmaking duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, doesn’t have a release date yet, but should be coming along in 2022 at the earliest; 2023 isn’t out of the question. Batgirl will be the first major DC movie from Warner Bros. to skip cinemas entirely and go right to HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s streaming service. We’re not sure if it’ll tie into the upcoming movie The Batman with Robert Pattinson, but considering how hard everything is trying to create their own cinematic universe lately, I wouldn’t be shocked.

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