Brendan Fraser expressed his disappointment at the Batgirl cancellation decision from Warner Bros. Discovery and the effect he believes this decision will have on the company’s industry engagement as a whole.
An HBO Max project centered around Batgirl was announced in May 2021, with star Leslie Grace landing the role as the titular heroine. Despite being in post-production, the nearly complete Batgirl was completely scrapped by Warner Bros Discovery, much to the dismay of fans and those involved in the project.
In an interview with Variety focused on his part in The Whale, Brendan Fraser, who was cast as the villain Firefly in the Batgirl project, spoke about the cancellation. “It’s tragic,” the star said about the project being scrapped. “It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.” The actor regrettably will not be taking the chance to see the rough cut of Batgirl, objecting to an experience that he described in the interview as akin to “eating half-baked cake.”
Fraser was not alone in being let down by the decision, as others involved with the project at all levels also expressed disappointment in the cancellation, including Batgirl composer Natalie Holt. This likely extends all the way to the top of the creative team, as co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are likely not happy with the decision either and might be unwilling to engage with the studio again on future projects. The same likely goes for potential Batgirl star Leslie Grace, who has taken to social media to share her experiences on set and will likely avoid putting in a similarly herculean effort on a project that might be scrapped on completion again, marking a possible loss for Warner Bros Discovery.
Batgirl is only one project that has suffered in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and subsequent radical changes in service of budget cuts and leaner spending. While the official position has shifted between the movie’s allegedly bad quality and a stated desire by new management to focus on large-scale theatric releases for the DCEU, completely unrelated employee cuts and projects like the popular animated space opera Final Space being written off for tax benefits seem to point to far less noble business reasons behind such cancelations.
It does not seem like this situation will change anytime soon. As such, upcoming projects might face the same discordant production and risk of cancellation that Batgirl suffered, possibly feeding back into a reluctance amongst filmmakers and other industry professionals to work with the studio going forward. How Warner Bros Discovery's top brass intends to repair the damage done in service of their financial goals remains to be seen.
Source: Variety