Looks like DC's Batgirl is getting her chance to take flight. The directing duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who recently gained a fair bit of clout from helming 2020's Bad Boys For Life, has signed on to direct the long-stagnating project, finally giving the film some positive momentum.
Arbi and Fallah already have an impressive resume together in their home country of Belgium, and their work on Bad Boys For Life has only helped launch their career into the mainstream. Aside from a number of well-regarded Belgian films, they also directed 2 episodes of FX crime drama Snowfall and they are set to direct and produce 2 episodes of the upcoming Ms. Marvel series on Disney Plus. That's not to mention their roles as directors for the upcoming 4th installment in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise.
Batgirl was originally set to be headed by Joss Whedon before the director stepped down due to a number of reasons, including his own admission that he had trouble pulling it off. Though bad press likely played a part as well. Whedon has recently been in a number of headlines due to actors and actresses coming forward about his abusive behavior on sets, such as Ray Fisher regarding Justice League and Charisma Carpenter on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a result, Batgirl was put on the backburner for a while before only recently moving to HBO Max and finally landing its directors.
Batgirl will follow the story of Barbara Gordon, daughter of Police Commissioner Jim Gordon and accomplished crime fighter in her own right. The character went through a famously controversial development in the Batman comic story The Killing Joke, which saw Barbara as the victim of a brutal shooting by The Joker, resulting in her paralysis and eventual rebranding as Batman's wheelchair-bound support known as Oracle. It's unknown whether the movie will address this piece of continuity, but many (such as even the upcoming game Gotham Knights) have tried to compensate for the events of The Killing Joke in the years since or flat out retconned them, so maybe Batgirl will follow suit.
It will be interesting to see Arbi and Fallah take on big projects in both the Marvel and DC universes with Ms. Marvel and Batgirl, respectively. While not exactly working on the full series in the case of Ms. Marvel, the whole situation is still a bit reminiscent of, for example, how J.J. Abrams has managed to direct big-budget films in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Though this will hopefully result in fewer angry fans than The Rise of Skywalker.
There's still a long way to go before Batgirl finally drops on HBO Max, so eager fans have plenty of time to speculate. Arbi and Fallah have a proven track record, but it's understandable if people are just naturally wary about a film covering a hero who hasn't gotten much attention lately. Hopefully, things go smoothly from here on out.
Batgirl is in development at Warner Bros.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter