Thanks to the shock canning of Batgirl, both the rise of Leslie Grace’s Barbara Gordon and the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman have been thrown into disarray. Following his reality-altering role in The Flash, Keaton was due to feature as the Dark Knight once more in the HBO Max original, this time partnering up with Grace’s heroine. Sadly, we won’t be seeing the pair in action anymore, but this new behind-the-scenes image teases what could have been.
Co-director Adil El Arbi shared this fascinating, high-quality photo on Instagram in the wake of the news that Warner Bros. will no longer be releasing Batgirl in any shape or form. The moody shot sees El Arbi standing in between the two caped crusaders on one of Gotham City’s patented gothic rooftops. Grace is in her Batgirl get-up while Keaton is once again suited up as Batman.
In the case of Keaton, there’s still a chance we may get to see him back in action, as The Flash film is still headed to theaters next year — at least at the time of writing. As for Grace, though, it seems that what no doubt would’ve been a bright future in the world of DC has been snuffed out before it even began, which is easily one of the greatest tragedies to come out of Batgirl‘s shelving. With any luck, some other DCEU project will find a place for her, so the In the Heights actress will belatedly be able to bring Babs to life.
As things stand, though, we’re relying on the cast and crew to drop these little slithers of Batgirl content to give us a taste of the movie we’ll never see. Sure, reports say it suffered from poor test screenings, but in a world in which Morbius hit cinemas not once but twice, fans would’ve loved to have got the opportunity to judge it for themselves.
