Set Decorator Claims ‘Batgirl’ Was “Literally Completely Finished,” And Hopes The Full Film Leaks One Day
Unless someone happened to save it from deletion at the right moment, Batgirl probably won’t be seen by any mere mortal in this lifetime. However, that fact still isn’t stopping a few from dreaming.
You can’t fault people who worked on a movie and enjoyed their experience for being proud of the final product. Still, they are usually the ones inveighing about their film being canceled, unceremoniously or not.
The latest person taking up Batgirl’s cause is a person from the art department claiming the doomed film was actually done. “It’s insane that they scrapped it. It was literally completely finished, VFX and everything,” said Annie Mitchell. “I think it was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when the merger happened.”
Mitchell was reacting to behind-the-scenes production footage on TikTok when she decided to speak on the project’s behalf. Her credit on the film includes set decoration that turned Glasgow, Scotland, into Gotham City. She added, “I definitely believe it still exists [though]. Really hoping someone leaks it in 10 years haha.”
While it’s remotely possible Batgirl is on a hard drive somewhere in the Warner Bros. vault, chances are slim. After David Zaslav and Discovery took over ownership of the studio, they shelved it in 2022 along with Coyote vs. Acme and other productions for tax purposes.
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One stipulation of the tax writeoff is they can never release or exhibit or else they’ll pay a million-dollar penalty to get Batgirl back. That is assuming they could, let alone want to. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah tried to save some footage, only to find it was all scrubbed from the cloud.
DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran was bold and emphatic in his assessment of it, saying, “That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.”
Batgirl’s release was shuffled so many times because it had to come out after The Flash to justify the addition of Michael Keaton as Batman. But once Safran and James Gunn decided they were starting over, the film’s fate was sealed.
READ NEXT: ‘Batgirl’ Actor Michael Keaton Says He “Didn’t Care One Way Or Another” About DC Film’s Cancellation
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