Birds of Prey will bring classic DC heroines like Black Canary and Huntress to the big screen for the first time. However, Harley Quinn will be the leader of the team and the focal point of the film, as made abundantly clear by the recent first trailer for the movie. Batgirl fans are bound to feel a bit disgruntled, then, that Barbara Gordon – the original head of the Birds in the comics – has been snubbed for the DCEU version.
The good news is that Warner Bros. will soon make up for this oversight with multiple films starring Babs in the future of the franchise. This promise comes from comic book writer Gail Simone, the scribe most closely connected with both the Birds and Barbara. She responded to a fan worried about the lack of Batgirl in BoP on Twitter and assured them that there’s “a lot of love” coming for the heroine.
Curiously, the tweet is now deleted, but the full text read: “I am a little bummed about Barbara but she is getting a LOT of love coming soon in other DC movies, so…”
Of course, there’s been a Batgirl solo movie in the works over at WB since 2017. Marvel’s Joss Whedon was initially set to write and direct but he left the project in 2018. Since then, the idea has been to find a female filmmaker to helm it. At the moment, it seems the studio is still looking for both the right person to direct and the right actress to star, but we’re hearing that the project is a priority. BoP‘s Christina Hodson has already penned a script.
As for the other movies Simone mentions, it’s possible she’s referring to Matt Reeves’ The Batman and its planned sequels and spinoffs. It was recently revealed that Reeves has ideas on how to bring Batgirl and Robin into the world of Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight. If Barbara makes it into the first film, she might be back on the silver screen as soon as June 2021. It’s about time Batgirl got another outing, too, considering her last cinematic appearance was in the dreadful Batman & Robin.
