Batgirl was the most famous movie in the world on August 2, when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav opted to scrap the film, $90 million in. Though many people wanted to get there hands on the film, including the directors who sadly discovered the film was scrubbed from WB servers, only a select few can view the film in the Warner Bros. lot. They are said to be for people who worked on the movie, both cast and crew, as well as representatives and executives.
One source described them as “funeral screenings,” a final sendoff before it is forever locked away in a vault.
So far the main reason for the cancelation was to obtain a tax write-down in the CEO’s journey to saving the company $3 billion in cost savings. Low test audience scores were also cited as a reason.
Batgirl was deep in post production, complete with the score and temp visual effects, though the film was still far from complete.
Now the question remains, will the public ever get to see Barbara Gordon in action? Not likely.
Batgirl is considered a tax write-down, making it a legal nightmare for WB if they decide to release the film, because it would no longer save them the money they need. We also do not know what footage is actually saved for the vault. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah said everything was gone when they tried to access the film on WB servers, so the true condition of the film is unknown.
Because of the legalities of the IRS, Batgirl‘s memorial service was held this week.