DC Studios' co-CEO Peter Safran recently called the cancelled Batgirl "unreleasable." Lead star Leslie Grace responded to such claims, disagreeing with Safran about the quality of Batgirl.Brendan Frasier says Batgirl's cancelation jeopardizes trust between studios and filmmakers. However, the actors are in the same boat since it is also their work that will never be seen, which leaves discourse about Batgirl's quality dependent on the word of each party and their protected interests. Even so, Grace opens up about her experience with Batgirl and reveals having seen an early cut of the DC film.During an interview with Variety, Grace respectfully disagreed with the top CEOs of Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios that the film was bad, which supports positive test screenings of Batgirl. “But the film that I got to see — the scenes that were there — was incredible. There was definitely potential for a good film, in my opinion.” Grace further states that they were in the beginning stages of editing when the film was canceled and that there were even missing scenes from the cut shown. “I got to see the film as far as it got to; the film wasn’t complete by the time that it was tested.” When asked by Variety if there was anything in the making of Batgirl that suggested the film was not working, Grace admitted to obstacles being part of every filmmaking process. However, thanks to the “incredible crew,” the final result never got “in the way of us delivering what we knew we wanted to deliver for this film.”
In defence of the film’s cancelation, Safran said that Batgirl would have hurt DC. However, this is coming from an individual in the same position as previous studio executives who released and stood by the 2017 cut of Justice League, even after the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League. Grace's perspective on Batgirl is not bound by responsibilities to protect the interests of Warner Bros. Discovery from the top down. Because Batgirl was missing scenes and barely had any post-production done, it may not be a fair assessment to assume that the film would have been as bad as was claimed by Zaslav and Safran.
The discrepancies in the film’s quality will remain in debate, as each person’s perspective is dependent on personal interests, such as the talent of filmmakers and actors, or to support the decision to have canceled Batgirl for a tax write-off. Regardless, audiences can agree that Warner Bros. Discovery should have stood by its creatives in releasing the film so that it could be fairly judged and enjoyed by audiences, even if under the new DC Elseworlds label.
Source: Variety