Brendan Fraser Reacts to ‘Batgirl’ Film Cancellation

If you’re bummed out that you’re not going to get to see HBO Max’s Batgirl movie after it was canceled during post-production by Warner Bros. Discovery, just imagine how the people who worked on the movie feel. All those months of effort and care, and they’ll never be seen or appreciated by anyone. It’s like the whole thing never happened.

One of those actors is Brendan Fraser, who was cast in the movie as the Batman villain Firefly. (You get three guesses what his powers are, and the first two don’t count. Yep; he’s a pyromaniac with wings.) Fraser, who had a rough couple years in both his professional and private life, seems poised for a comeback in 2022, thanks to his work in movies like Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which recently premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival. And of course he was going to be the villain in this Batgirl movie which would have also boosted his profile — at least until it was permanently shelved, reportedly so WBD could write off its budget on the company’s taxes.

So how is Fraser taking that decision? He told Variety he is “disappointed” that the movie won’t see the light of day. He added:

The fans really wanted to see this film made. Leslie Grace is a dynamo. The movie was shot and conceived for a smaller screen. In this age that we’ve come out of now between streaming service versus theatrical release, it wound up being the canary in the coal mine. What did we learn from this? Work with trusted filmmakers, like Darren [Aronofsky].

It still seems unbelievable that Warner Bros. could spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 to $100 million on a movie and then stick it on a shelf forever. But at this point, there doesn’t seem to be much hope that we’ll ever get a look at Batgirl. Hopefully Brendan Fraser’s career revival doesn’t slow down as a result. It’s great to have him back.

The next DC Comics movie on the release calendar is Black Adam, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 21.