In August 2022, Hollywood skilled a serious shakeup with Batgirl’s launch being scrapped. Quite than this being a case of a film being shelved early into its improvement and even proper earlier than manufacturing kicked off, the DC film had already been shot, and the plan had been to launch it solely to Max subscribers. As an alternative, we’ll now by no means see Leslie Grace’s platform to shine as Barbara Gordon, which was particularly disheartening to Batgirl’s administrators, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Nevertheless, one of many few silver linings from this monumental resolution was that they obtained a clever tip from Will Smith, whom they’d labored with on Unhealthy Boys for Life.
When the Batgirl information broke, El Arbi and Fallah have been in Morocco for the previous’s marriage ceremony, so it was an distinctive case of unhealthy timing. Smith additionally attended the occasion, and two days after the nuptials, he gave the next phrases of knowledge to the filmmaking duo, as El Arbi recalled to Selection:
It was two days after the marriage, and Will Smith was there. He was like, ‘What’s taking place? Oh my God.’ And he stated, ‘Actually, don’t fear about it. Only one tip. Don’t go on social media.’
Batgirl was scrapped from the upcoming DC motion pictures slate so it may very well be a tax write-off for Warner Bros. Discovery, which means it could by no means legally be proven to the general public, though some secret screenings have been held for the forged and crew members, amongst different choose invitees, earlier than the film went below lock and key. This transfer got here roughly two and a half years after Unhealthy Boys for Life, the blockbuster that paired Will Smith again with Martin Lawrence almost 20 years after Unhealthy Boys 2’s launch. With Smith hanging round after Adil El Arbi’s marriage ceremony, he was available to inform him and Bilall Fallah to not stress an excessive amount of about Batgirl’s destiny, in addition to advise them to not go on social media throughout this craziness. Frankly, staying off social media is steadily a very good tip it doesn’t matter what the event, however I digress.
Had Batgirl been accomplished and launched, viewers would’ve gotten to see issues like Leslie Grace’s title character going through off towards Brendan Fraser’s Firefly, J.Okay. Simmons reprising Commissioner James Gordon for the primary time since Justice League, and Michael Keaton leaping again into motion as Batman following his huge return to the cape and cowl in The Flash. Alas, these moments have been doomed to by no means be witnessed by the general public, with Peter Safran, who co-runs DC Studios with James Gunn, saying in January 2023 that Batgirl was “not releasable” and “wouldn’t have been in a position to compete within the theatrical market.” The excellent news, although, is that El Arbi and Fallah have been in a position to get some superhero media expertise elsewhere by helming two episodes of the Ms. Marvel collection, which will be streamed with a Disney+ subscription.
For many who loved Will Smith’s work with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah on Unhealthy Boys for Life, the three males have teamed again up with Martin Lawrence for Unhealthy Boys 4, which doesn’t have a launch date but. In the meantime, following the discharge of Blue Beetle,and Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom, the DCEU period is wrapping up, after which the brand new DC Universe will launch its Chapter One slate.
