Leslie Grace takes to social media to thank her fans for the support after Warner Bros. decided to cancel the release of Batgirl across all platforms after spending 90 million dollars. “Querida familia! On the heels of the recent news about our movie Batgirl, I am proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland,” the Dominican American singer and actress wrote on Instagram.
“I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged relationships for a lifetime in the process! To every Batgirl fan – THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, ‘my own damn hero!’ Batgirl for life!”
© @lesliegraceIt was reported that the nearly completed film was not tested well enough, and Warner Bros. was not satisfied with the audiences‘ responses. This decision also follows recent changes across the company and WB’s merger with Discovery.
“This falls in line with the mandate put down by the new WB regime to cut back on the feature films premiering on the streamer and deciding which films will be released theatrically and which will be shelved,” Deadline reports.
Sources close to the project revealed that Batgirl and the new Scooby-Doo movie Scoob!: Holiday Haunt ultimately did not cut, as Warner Bros. is implementing a new strategy, and the studio “is looking to make theatrical tentpoles with budgets at $90 million-plus, and from early footage seen, this did not fall into place with that model.”
The 27-year-old star known in Hollywood for In the Heights would have been among the short group of Latinas headlining a superhero film.
© @lesliegraceThe film was expected to debut on HBO Max in 2023, and the filmmakers behind it were Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the team who made Bad Boys for Life, according to The Root. Christina Hodson, who was responsible for writing Birds of Prey and The Flash, wrote the script for the failed new DC film.
El Arbi and Fallah said they were “saddened and shocked” by the news.
“We still can’t believe it,” they wrote. “As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves. Maybe one day they will insha’Allah.”
