Warner Bros. kills ‘Batgirl’ movie under leadership of CEO who axed CNN+

Warner Bros. just killed its “Batgirl” movie, which was in its final stages, after spending tens of millions of dollars on the project. Sources told the New York Post the movie was “irredeemable.”

The superhero movie, which had been set to debut on HBO Max later this year, had a $70 million budget and was in post-production. But instead of running the movie, the studio announced Wednesday that it had decided to shelve it permanently. Two main factors were apparently at play in the decision.

The first was cost. The film had already well exceeded its budget by at least $20 million. Variety reported that it had hit the $90-million mark due to costs connected to filming during the pandemic. But according to Post’s sources, even that figure is low. A Hollywood insider revealed to the paper that the film’s budget had hit $100 million.

Despite sinking that much money into the project, Warner Bros. still elected to kill it. And that’s due to the second factor: It reportedly is not a good film. The Post’s source called the movie “irredeemable” after news broke that test screening of the movie had produced poor results.

The move caught the film’s directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, by surprise. They took to Instagram to share their shock.

“We are saddened and shocked by the news,” they wrote. “We still can’t believe it. As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves. Maybe one day they will insha’Allah [if God wills].”

Their hope for a future airing of the movie is highly unlikely. Sources told Variety that Warner Bros. will take a tax write-down for the film, as well as the “Scoob!” sequel it just killed. According to the outlet, that is “the most financially sound way to recoup the costs,” which means not only can the company not run the film after taking the loss on their tax bill, they also cannot sell it to another studio.

The decision to put “Batgirl” on ice came following a major leadership shakeup at Warner Bros. following its merger with Discovery. The company’s new CEO, David Zaslav, has been determined to cut costs, as evidenced by his famous call to pull the plug on CNN+ less than a month after it launched.

According to the Wrap, HBO Max employees are “freaking out” with rumors of looming major layoffs.

This story has been updated.