The surprise announcement of the cancellation of the Batgirl movie hit fans hard.
While the film wasn’t one of the most anticipated releases initially, the last fans heard of it was the possibility of the movie going from streaming only to gaining a theatrical release.
So to go from something so hopeful to an outright cancellation, was a surprise.
And no one is taking it harder than Brendan Fraser fans.
The Batgirl movie, starring Leslie Grace as the titular superhero and Fraser as the villain, was slated for release on HBO Max this year. However, a shakeup at the parent company, Warner Bros Discovery caused executives to take a different approach.
The movie which had finished principal photography was shelved. While it wasn’t quite finished, it was in the middle of post-production.
Fraser would have played Firefly, a Batman villain that has yet to grace the live-action silver screen. Alongside Fraser, J.K. Simmons would reprise his role as Commissioner Gordon with Michael Keaton returning as Bruce Wayne.
So an entire bevy of great actors and this film was still cancelled.
Fraser has seen a resurgence of popularity in recent years. After becoming a popular actor in the 90s and early 2000s in such films as The Mummy franchise and George of the Jungle,
Fraser says he was blacklisted after Philip Berk—former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association—sexually assaulted him at an event, giving him PTSD. While he never fully stopped acting, his blockbuster roles seemed to dry up in the mid to late 2000s.
After the success of his roles on the series Doom Patrol and being cast in Darren Aronofsky’s new movie The Whale, it looks like Fraser is rising up again.
Which makes the loss of a possibly great role like a Batman villain all the more disheartening.
Fans are lobbying for an eventual release of the Batgirl movie.
Some are comparing the campaign to the “#ReleasetheSnyderCut” movement, which sought for Warner Bros to provide Zack Snyder the means to finish his version of the Justice League movie, after disastrous reshoots from Joss Whedon.
In this case, fans just want the movie finished and released. Could it really be so expensive and worth the lost revenue?
@JamesTate121/X
