Almost three years after the Batgirl movie was scrapped, a crew member has confirmed that the DC film was pretty much finished, complete with VFX editing.
"It’s insane that they scrapped it. It was literally completely finished VFX and everything," said art department assistant Annie Mitchell via a TikTok comment. "I definitely believe it still exists tho. Really hoping someone leaks it in 10 years."
The comments are in reply to a video, part of the viral TikTok trend where users answer ‘What’s your favorite piece of lost media’, to which @hellenicrequiem replied Batgirl. "It's actually so soul-crushing to see the amount of love and effort put into a film only for it to be turned into a tax write-off and completely deleted from existence," said the user of Batgirl.
According to Mitchell’s comments and her IMDb page, Mitchell worked in the art department on Batgirl while it was filmed in Scotland. "I was in the set decoration department for the whole movie," said Mitchell. "For things like the huge street transformation we did to make a random Glasgow street into Gotham."
Starring Leslie Grace as Batgirl, based on the DC comic book character Barbara Gordon, the movie was set to follow the young vigilante and the daughter of police commissioner James Gordon as she balances a double life in Gotham City. Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Batgirl was intended to be part of the DCEU, also starring J. K. Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Brendan Fraser, Michael Keaton, and Ivory Aquino.
Development on the feature film first began in 2017 but faced a rewrite in 2018 and then changed directors in 2021. But, in August 2022 the film was scrapped due to cost-cutting, despite it already entering post-production.
However, considering the hundreds of thousands of likes on that one TikTok video, it is clear that fans still want to see the movie. Who knows, maybe Warner Bros. will release the movie in 10 years, just like Mitchell says.
For more, check out our list of the best superhero movies, or keep up with upcoming DC movies and TV shows heading your way.
