The Batgirl Film Gets New Life! — The Credible Nerds

DC’s Batgirl film has had limited to no news over the past couple of years, with the most recent being that a script was being written by Christina Hodson, who wrote Bumblebee, as well as DC’s Birds of Prey and Flash. Joss Whedon was initially set to write and direct, but stepped away in April 2018, which is good since recently allegations of abuse and racism by Joss Wheddon during the 2017 Justice League reshoots have come out from Ray Fisher.

The latest news being reported today by The Hollywood Reporter, is that two new directors are set to direct Batgirl for an HBO Max release. The directors are Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who most recently directed the first and last episode of Marvel’s upcoming Ms. Marvel Disney+ series as well as 2020’s Bad Boys For Life. They have been chosen to direct Batgirl.

Kristin Burr will be producing (she produced the upcoming ‘Cruella’) and had this to say about Batgirl,

‘With Batgirl, we hope to take the audience on a fun ride and see a different side of Gotham,” said Burr. “Christina’s script is crackling with spirit. Adil and Bilall have an excited and joyous energy which is infectious, making them the perfect filmmakers for this Batproject. And I’m just psyched I get to be part of the DC universe, which is super cool.”

With words and phrases like “fun ride”, and that we will “see a different side of Gotham”, as well as the “script is crackling with spirit.” I can imagine we won’t be seeing Batman’s dark and dreary Gotham, but a more Marvel-ized Gotham. I would guess that the story will most likely be more along the lines of the Gotham we saw in Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, a Gotham with bright colors and the story taking place in the day time.

While I did enjoy the Birds of Prey movie and really my only qualms about the movies was that it seemed to be two movies in one - a story of Harley Quinn set four years after Suicide Squad when she and Joker break up, and the origin story of Birds of Prey. If Birds of Prey were to ultimately serve as a segway to the next Harley Quinn movie, as well as a separate movie for a second Birds of Prey movie, then I can better accept the story of Birds of Prey as it would make more sense. But that doesn’t seem to be the case at least at this point in time.

One of my favorite comic book storylines in DC’s New 52 Era was Batgirl, so I do hope this film is more along the lines of that comic series as it is really enjoyable and a good read. Plus Batgirl often teams up with the Birds of Prey in the New 52, so hopefully we’ll get to see Batgirl and the Birds of Prey together in the movie as the screenplay writer for both movies is the same - Christina Hodson.

No word yet on when the film will begin production or a movie release date.