See What Karen Gillan Could Look Like As DC’s Batgirl

Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse in Jumanji: The Next Level
(Image credit: (Sony))

Over the past few years, Karen Gillan has become a badass action star… on accident. When the actress was initially picked to play Nebula on James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy her character was written to die. She was going to dip her feet into the world of superheroes for just a week. But, script rewrites happened and now she’s almost five films deep in the world of Marvel. She’s a video game character in two Jumanji films, and now Batgirl?

Karen Gillan recently expressed her interest in starring and directing a Batgirl film, so of course the artists of the internet are already hard at work sharing their vision for how the actress could look donning the emblem and cape. Check out ApexForm’s digital work:

A photo posted by on

This is actually such a good match for Barbara Gordon! Karen Gillan already has the trademark red hair of the crime fighter and plenty of experience doing stuntwork for Marvel and Jumanji movies. She recently worked with the Mission: Impossible stunt team for Jumanji: The Next Level to master her awesome nunchucks sequence.

Check out what Karen Gillan recently said about her interest in playing the DC heroine:

Batgirl would be cool for that, as well. My favorite film in that world, my favorite one is The Dark Knight. I just love the way that one is directed so much. So, I would just love to work in that world, as a director. Come on, DC. Look over this way.

It was just an answer to an interview question and Karen Gillan is not currently attached to any DC projects, but it looks like this idea is gaining traction with fans! Longtime Batgirl comic book writer Gail Simone even endorsed her on Twitter, saying she’d “kill” as Barbara!

So, can this just happen already? A Batgirl movie has been in development over at Warner Bros for quite some time. Joss Whedon was originally attached to helm the project but he dropped out because The Avengers director just couldn’t pin down the right story. Bumblebee and Birds of Prey scriptwriter Christina Hodson has reportedly been hired to write the Batgirl script, but there’s not been word of the project continuing to move forward in quite some time.

The studio may be waiting out to see how Birds of Prey does before they greenlight Christina Hodson’s second script with DC. The February 7 release will feature Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn once again – this time teaming up with Huntress, Cassandra Cain and Black Canary in an action flick opposite Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask.

Karen Gillan’s next project will be James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 once the writer/director wraps production on The Suicide Squad. Maybe Gunn will put a good word out for her to the DC bigwigs?

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.