Leslie Grace shares bittersweet reflections on ‘Batgirl’ cancellation

Warner Bros. Discovery canceling Batgirl sent shockwaves through the movie industry. It’s rare for any project deep into post-production to be permanently shelved, let alone a superhero blockbuster set in Gotham City featuring Michael Keaton as Batman. The news saw a lot of sympathy for the cast and crew, especially for Batgirl that never was Leslie Grace.

Batgirl was to be the role that made her a star, and everything we’ve seen indicates she threw herself into intense physical training to play the part. Now, thanks to an Instagram video posted by Grace, we have a further taste of what she went through, together with a very brief look at the dailies. The video is soundtracked by “Bad Girls Get Lonely Too”, which Grace wrote with Lauren LaRue in 2020 and sounds suspiciously like “Batgirls Get Lonely Too”.

Soon after the hammer dropped, the sheer amount of fan outcry that the film had been trashed left some hopeful that Warner Bros. Discovery would change course. That doesn’t seem to be happening, with Batgirl apparently being considered a tax write-off for the studio. That means they legally cannot profit from it, so what remains of the film will lie dormant on a dusty hard drive in the company vault.

Despite all that, we may still see it one day, whether it be via a disgruntled employee, opportunistic hacker, or simply circumstances changing to make it legal to release. But, for now, Batgirl is firmly on ice, and these morsels of footage are all we’ve got of Barbara Gordon’s DCEU adventures.