Warner Brothers’ DC Extended Universe just keeps on growing. After only recently announcing that a movie starring Nightwing is on its way, we now know that another of Batman‘s sidekicks is to feature in their own film. This time, it’s Batgirl AKA Barbara Gordon. While this is exciting enough news on its own, what’s really got people giddy is the fact that Joss Whedon is currently in talks to direct the movie. If this goes ahead, it’ll be one heck of a coup for DC, seeing as Whedon previously led Marvel to massive success with his two Avengers movies.
The big question now is: who should play Batgirl? Well, first of all, to answer that question we need to know how the character will be portrayed in the film. Thankfully, we’ve already heard that Whedon’s flick will likely mine the Batgirl comics written by Gail Simone, as part of 2011’s The New 52 reboot, for inspiration. In those stories, Barbara is aged down to a recent college graduate. After a year operating as Batgirl, Babs was brutally shot and left paralyzed by the Joker. Three years later, she regains the use of her legs and takes on the mantle of Batgirl once again.
In other words, whoever plays Barbara Gordon needs to be a strong, versatile actress, who can portray a tough, capable woman but also get across the trauma and pain that the character has suffered through. Thankfully, we have some ideas as to which actresses can do just that…
