Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo comments on Warner Bros. decision. Discovery to cancel the movie Batgirl movie. Joe and his brother Anthony Russo have become accomplished directors in the superhero film industry thanks to their work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe beginning with 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Since then, the Russo brothers’ superhero filmography has only grown in number and scale with each of their subsequent projects, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War2018’s Avengers: Infinite War, and 2019 Avengers: Endgamewith the latter temporarily becoming the highest-grossing film of all time.
On the other side of the world of comic book movies, the DC Universe made headlines in August 2022 when Warner Bros. decided their almost finished Batgirl movie starring Leslie Grace, which reportedly had a budget of $90 million dollars and was slated for an HBO Max exclusive release. The news sent shockwaves to DC fans as it felt unprecedented to cancel a film that was not only highly regarded but was so far in production. Following the news, Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav commented on the decision to cancel the film by hinting that they did not believe in the project and felt it was their duty to protect the DC brand. Since the cancellation, many people from both inside and outside the production have commented on the decision, including Marvel president Kevin Feige who has directly contacted directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who has previously worked with them on Mrs. Marvel.
In an interview with Variety, Russo has become the most recent person to comment on the Batgirl cancel, call it a “murder“. The Avengers: Endgame co-director further alludes to the business thought process likely involved in this decision making. View the full quote below:
“It’s rare that I can think of something so striking, so expensive, killed in such a way. It’s sad, but we are in a time when corporate sociopathy is emerging because people are afraid.”
Why Batgirl was cancelled
Russo doesn’t flinch from voicing his thoughts on the situation and shoots straight at Warner Bros. executives. Discovery for luring Batgirl. It’s not without reason, though, as the cancellation decision stemmed from the fact that taking a tax write-off for the film was more financially beneficial to the studio than releasing it. When he first came to the studio, Zaslav had to clear $3 billion in debt he inherited from former CEO Toby Emmerich, and despite early Batgirl test screenings are the same as: Black Adamwhat is currently the highest-rated DCU theatrical film among audiences, his lack of confidence eventually saw the Leslie Grace-directed film cancelled.
Like many others, Russo is clearly upset by the decision to stay on the shelf Batgirl and recognizes how rare it is to see a studio make the decision that Warner Bros. did. That said, with all the changes and tweaks that have been made with Warner Bros. and their DC properties, it could be argued that an anomalous event like this was a long time coming for the studio. It remains to be seen how DC changes in the future with their more recent personnel changes, but the public can hope to see situations like this in the rearview mirror.
Source: Variety
