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Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the filmmakers of Batgirl, explain that while they loved seeing The Flash, they were disappointed that their film was canceled. The pair also discussed how Batgirl would have been a different sort of DC film, describing it as a sharp contrast to The Flash and noted that they’d be open for re-doing Batgirl if given the chance.
What did the filmmakers of ‘Batgirl’ say about ‘The Flash’?
While speaking with Insider, Adil El Arbi and Billal Fallah talked about their previously-highly anticipated and now-canceled superhero project, stressing that they truly wanted to be a part of the DC Universe and also discussed their initial reactions after watching The Flash. “We watched it and we were sad,” began El Arbi. “We love director Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara, who produced the movie. But when we watched it, we felt we could have been part of the whole thing. We didn’t get the chance to show Batgirl to the world and let the audience judge for themselves. Because the audience really is our ultimate boss and should be the deciders of if something is good or bad, or if something should be seen or not.”
“Our love for DC, Batman, Batgirl, Gotham City, it’s so big that, as fans, we could never say no to another project,” they concluded. “If we got another chance to be part of it, we’d do it. We didn’t get our day in court. We still want to make our case.”
“Our movie was very different than The Flash. That has a big fantasy component, ours was more grounded. More like Tim Burton’s Gotham City.”
Filmmakers of ‘Batgirl’
Why was ‘Batgirl’ scrapped?
Many have hypothesized as to why the film was canceled thus far into production, with some speculating that the company was attempting to utilize it as a tax write-off. Others feel the film’s plot would not have fit into the canon of the DC Extended Universe, which was eventually renamed the DC Universe after James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-CEOs of DC Studios. Batgirl would have featured Leslie Grace as the eponymous protagonist on a journey to prove herself a hero by defeating the wicked Firefly, played by Brendan Fraser. Warner Bros. Discovery truly startled fans in late 2022 when it revealed that it was canceling Batgirl despite the fact that the film had finished filming and was in the middle of post-production but no cause was provided officially.