‘Batgirl’ Directors Call It ‘Biggest Disappointment’ of Careers

DC’s Batgirl was an important part of how the old model of DC films before James Gunn was going to work. Like The Flash, it included Micheal Keaton returning as Batman, and it was expected to continue the old DC movie universe.

Unfortunately, the film is never going to see the light of day. Despite being almost completely finished, the higher-ups over at Warner Bros. decided they’d be better off scrapping the whole project than releasing it, as originally intended, on the Max streaming service. This reportedly allowed them to claim $90 million dollars as a tax write-off. The reasons cited were that it was a cost-cutting measure and part of their shift back towards theatrical releases. By the time it was finished, it also sounded like maybe they didn't have faith that it could make back its budget.

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah recently sat down with Insider to talk about how they're feeling now that they've had a little bit of time to reflect on the decision.

“It’s the biggest disappointment of our careers,” said El Arbi, while Fallah added “There's still a feeling of unfinished business.”

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“We didn’t get the chance to show Batgirl to the world and let the audience judge for themselves,” El Arbi opined. “Because the audience really is our ultimate boss and should be the deciders of if something is good or bad, or if something should be seen or not.”

The pair also noted they watched The Flash — the movie that was supposed to lead into Batgirl — and were “sad ... We love director Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara, who produced the movie. But when we watched it, we felt we could have been part of the whole thing.”

Despite the whole mess, the directors aid they “could never say no to another project” in the DC world if something came up.