Batgirl Directors Open Up About Keaton’s Batman In The Flash, Reflect On DC Movie Cancellation

The Batgirl movie directors are opening up about seeing Michael Keaton’s Batman in The Flash while also getting candid about their film’s cancelation. While 2023 wasn’t an easy year for the DCEU, 2022 was a lot more heated when Warner Bros. Discovery made the decision to cancel the Batgirl film that was scheduled for Max (formerly known as HBO Max). Despite having wrapped principal photography, the new leaders at the studio made the call to cancel Batgirl, which became one of the biggest controversies in Hollywood.

Following the release of The Flash, which was meant to set up the story for Batgirl, primarily with Keaton’s Batman, the directors behind the Leslie Grace-starring movie talked about seeing the DCEU installment this summer. In an interview with Insider, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah shared their love for The Flash’s Andy and Barbara Muschietti, but they made it clear that seeing the movie was bittersweet. For Arbi, he felt that “we could have been part of the whole thing,” as he is still disappointed that the world never got to see and judge the newest of DC’s canceled movie lineup for themselves, sharing the following:

We watched it and we 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. We didn’t get the chance to show ‘Batgirl’ to the world and let the audience judge for themselves. 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.

How The Flash’s Release Makes Batgirl’s Cancellation Worse

As the Batgirl cancelation is over a year old, it can’t be denied that the decision to scrap the film is still baffling to this day, especially in light of The Flash. Before DC Studios was properly announced, The Flash was meant to be a reset for the DCEU, and Batgirl was going to be instrumental in showing this new changed reality. In the original ending of The Flash, Keaton’s Bruce Wayne would have been the new main Batman for the DCEU as a consequence of Barry Allen restoring the timeline.

If Batgirl had been able to come out as planned after The Flash, there would have been an actual connection made between the movies and likely prompted audiences to commit to this universe. The Flash’s cliffhanger ending with Keaton would be a mystery that could also potentially be resolved through Batgirl, with Barbara Gordon’s movie allowing audience members to get a better understanding of what the new DCEU would have looked like after 2023. But with Batgirl getting canceled and a new DC Universe being on its way, The Flash instead ended on a comedic note by having George Clooney’s Bruce now existing in the DCEU, confusing viewers who weren’t sure if he was the official new permanent Batman casting.

The more that has been revealed about Batgirl, the more the loss of the movie is clear, due to the wasted potential of both its casting and premise. Unless Batgirl ever gets surprisingly released, the world will have to keep speculating what could have been if Barbara’s solo film had been allowed to come out.