The long-gestating Batgirl movie is close to filming according to one of its directors. Director Adil El Arbi is working on the new DCEU movie with his Bad Boys For Life collaborator Bilall Fallah. El Arbi recently shared a post on his Instagram story that seemed to involve the upcoming action movie’s crew.
Intriguingly El Arbi captioned the post: “Getting closer to shoot.” While no firm date’s been set it means we can probably expect Batgirl to start filming early in the new year. The film is set for release in 2022 so El Arbi and Fallah will have to get their bat-skates on if they want to hit that date.
Batgirl will debut on the streaming service HBO Max as an exclusive movie on the platform. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that In The Heights star Leslie Grace had been cast as Batgirl. Grace will be playing Barbara Gordon, the best-known version of the character, in the film. Barbara is the daughter of Batman ally Commissioner Gordon who becomes a vigilante after being inspired by the Dark Knight’s crackdown on crime.
Little is known of the movie’s plot at the time of writing but it’s reported that El Arbi and Fallah will be using a script from screenwriter Christina Hodson who wrote Birds of Prey and the Transformers movie Bumblebee. We also know that Brendan Fraser is going to appear as the film’s bad guy.
DC and Warner Bros have been trying to get a Batgirl movie off the ground for a few years now. There were plans for Joss Whedon to write, direct, and produce a Batgirl movie using Gail Simone’s seminal comic book run as a basis. In 2018, though, he left the project saying he didn’t really have a story.
If you love the Bat-Family be sure to check out our guide on the Dark Knight’s next feature-length movie, The Batman.