Since its reboot with Man of Steel, the DC Extended Universe has been going through a rocky period, including canceling the Snyderverse, Ezra Miller being a controversy machine and now, abruptly canceling Batgirl after production.
Starting off with the fatal decision to replace Zack Snyder with Joss Whedon for the production of Justice League, fans were treated to a masterclass of studio screw-up. Since then, DC movies have been more successful in the independent movies phase.
Batgirl gets axed by the studio
On the warpath, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been canceling DC films left and right, including the much-expected Batgirl. In the company’s Q2 earnings call last Thursday, the Warner Bros. Ceo commented on the cancellation, he stated:
“We’re not going to launch a movie to make a quarter and we’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it.”
Produced on a budget of $90 million, the movie was canceled on August 2nd and will not even see an HBO Max release. Some early reports had stated that test screenings for Batgirl resulted in the film being called “irredeemable.”
Kevin Smith calls out WB for shelving Batgirl
Chiming into the conversation, Supergirl director Kevin Smith was disappointed with Warner Bros’ decision. In his Youtube Show, “Hollywood Babble-On”, he called the decision “an incredibly bad look” for the studio, he further stated:
“I don’t give a s–t if the movie [Batgirl] was absolute f—ing dog s–t – I guarantee you that it wasn’t. The two directors who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of ‘Ms. Marvel,’ and it was a wonderful fucking show and they had more money to do ‘Batgirl’ than they had to do an episode of ‘Ms. Marvel’ and stuff.”
You may also like: ‘He deserves an Emmy’: Kevin Smith Floored By Antony Starr’s Unparalleled Performance as Homelander in The Boys Herogasm Episode
He continued to criticize the studio, questioning the decision as they stuck with Ezra Miller’s The Flash despite being radioactive, but dropped a DC film headlined by a Latina actor, Leslie Grace. Since last year, Ezra Miller has been the center of multiple controversies ranging from physical assault to grooming minors.
Recently, the actor was reported to have founded a cult in Iceland and roamed in full body armor loaded with guns and ammunition. As a result, the decision to go ahead with The Flash despite having a controversial lead actor has left Kevin Smith fuming.
“That is the baffling thing. I don’t give a shit how bad the ‘Batgirl’ movie is, nobody in that movie is complicated or has anything in their real life you have to market around. In ‘The Flash’ movie, we all know there’s a big problem! Flash is the Reverse-Flash in real life.”
Though WB chief David Zaslav has clarified that Batgirl was shelved due to quality concerns, he has been targetted online for deliberately targeting Latin-American superhero-led movies while giving free rein to someone like Ezra Miller. With The Flash still on track to be released next year, the current scenario doesn’t look good for Zaslav and WB Discovery for the time being.
The Flash is expected to hit theaters on June 23, 2023.
Source: YouTube
