With Zack Snyder’s Justice League having reunited us with Ben Affleck’s Batman, there’s been renewed talk about what was in store for this version of the Caped Crusader back when The Batman was being set up for him rather than starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne. The Affleck-led The Batman would have seen the eponymous hero fighting Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke, but he wouldn’t have been the only Bat-hero involved in the story. It turns out Batgirl would have swooped in too.
Joe Manganiello revealed this while he talked about Zack Snyder’s Justice League during his appearance on Comicbook.com’s ComicBookNation Podcast. He described Batgirl’s role in this earlier version of The Batman as follows:
There was like a big huge showdown. I think... Batgirl jumps in to try to help Bruce because Deathstroke is so fast that he can anticipate Bruce's movements. And there was this huge fight in Gotham City where Batman is like, you know, completely afraid because he realizes he's met someone who can take him. And that leads to this big climactic battle through the streets of Gotham City at the end.
Although it’s been noted several times in the DCEU that Ben Affleck’s Batman had been fighting crime for approximately two decades by the time the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice rolled around, other than seeing the Robin memorial in the Batcave, we haven’t learned about the people who battled bad guys alongside him in Gotham City. So having Batgirl involved in The Batman would have been a big deal, not only because she’d be helping Batman out of his predicament with Deathstroke, but because it’d finally give us some Bat-Family action, which hasn’t been seen in a live-action movie since the critically derided Batman & Robin.
Clueless star Alicia Silverstone played Batgirl, a.k.a. Barbara Gordon, in that 1997 movie, and although The Mandalorian’s Rosario Dawson voiced Barbara for The LEGO Batman Movie, we’re certainly due for a new live-action interpretation of the character. Back in 2017, Joss Whedon was hired to direct, write and produce a Batgirl movie, but he exited the project in February 2018 and The Flash writer Christina Hodson was brought aboard to pen the screenplay. There hasn’t been any major updates on the Batgirl movie since then, although DC Films president Walter Hamada noted that it could end up being developed as an HBO Max exclusive.
Presumably the Batgirl who showed up in The Batman would have been the same one who led her own movie, and her appearance in the then-Ben Affleck vehicle could have been a good backdoor pilot-like approach with “introducing” audiences to the character before watching her embark on her own adventure. But the direction of the DCEU has changed significantly following the theatrical release of Justice League, and now The Batman is set in a different corner of the DC multiverse. So even though Zack Snyder’s Justice League included the original Lex Luthor/Deathstroke scene that foreshadowed Affleck’s version of The Batman, even with the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse campaign underway, it’s extremely unlikely this story will ever be told.
That’s not to say we won’t see more of Ben Affleck’s Batman though, as he’s starring in The Flash movie. As for Batgirl, assuming there’s still interest in featuring her in a movie, it’s unclear if we’d be getting the DCEU version or an interpretation of her living in Matt Reeves’ Batman world. Either way, Barbara Gordon fans can take comfort that there is another live-action of her on the way, as Titans Season 3 will feature Savannah Welch recurring as Barbara, who is now the Gotham City Police Department Commissioner after being paralyzed by The Joker.
If you’re interested in learning what non-Batman-related DC cinematic offerings are in development, scan through our upcoming DC movies guide. Should any major cinematic Batgirl news be announced to the public, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know.
