All The Footage From 'Batgirl' Has Been Scrubbed From Warner Bros. Servers After Its Cancellation
Image Source: Den Of Geek
Some days, you just can’t get rid of a film. Despite the efforts of Warner Bros. Discovery to remove Batgirl from the public conversation, the company’s every move seems to only be increasing the buzz surrounding the movie. This all began when the comic book film starring Leslie Grace was abruptly cancelled by CEO David Zaslav in exchange for a tax write-off. Despite the movie having a budget of at least $90 million and being in the final stages of post-production, Batgirl has been shelved without a plan for any kind of theatrical or streaming release. The backlash to this decision has resulted in the #ReleaseBatgirl online campaign, which countless fans have used to call for the film’s official release.
Batgirl’s cancellation has also attracted the ire of various celebrities in the world of fandom. Among them is Kevin Smith, who openly criticized the company’s unwillingness to release Batgirl while still going forward with The Flash, starring the highly controversial Ezra Miller. At the moment though, the newly-merged conglomerate seems to be dedicated to never giving Batgirl a release to the point of outright erasing footage without the production team’s notice.
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Just hours ago, we learned even more about the situation from Bilall Fallah; one of Batgirl’s directors alongside fellow Moroccan director Adil El Arbi. According to Fallah, he had attempted to salvage the footage they filmed upon learning of the movie’s cancellation. He was then shocked and disheartened to find that all of the footage had been scrubbed from the Warner Bros. servers. "I went on the server ...Everything was gone...We were [like] ...'Fucking shit'...We did not [even] keep [the scenes] with Batman in it.”
Such an ordeal must have been frustrating for the director, especially since he and the rest of Batgirl’s production team were caught off-guard by the film’s abrupt cancellation. In addition to being nearly completed, the film was set to be the first DC film since Catwoman to star a woman of color, as well as the first to feature a transgender character, played by Asian trans actress Ivory Aquino. CEO David Zaslav himself has also come under fire for his disregard for diverse content and exclusive hiring of white men to his company’s new board.
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Combined with Warner Bros. Discovery’s decreasing stocks and ever-going controversies, things don’t seem to be going too well for this company. The constant cancellations and increasing disdain toward the new CEO seem to be putting the conglomerate on a path toward a financial crisis as well as a PR nightmare. Even if Batgirl does eventually get an official release, the bridges this company has burned may have irreparably hurt them in a streaming war that’s only gotten more heated. Will Warner Bros. make the right call and begin to treat their intellectually owned properties with more respect? Or will they continue to prioritize short-term profits over long-term reputation and staying power in the eyes of fandom and the public at large? Tune in next time.
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Source: Culture Crave