4 ms·

Warner Bros. Shelves ‘Batgirl’ with No Plans to Release Theatrically or HBO Max

14 points by taubek 4y ago

norwalkbear 4y ago
Yikes must be really bad, eating a 70 mil loss is insane. Imagine if a tech company did something like that!
8jef 4y ago
What an absolute failure of imagination from management, totally on par with most unsavory and unremarkable products they usually peddle. So glad my kids finally grew out of all that superheroes crapfest.
pipeline_peak 4y ago
- dragontamer 4y ago
  Wonder Woman has always been a feminist symbol, with Doctor Psycho appearing as early as volume#5 to explicitly have Wonder Woman fight a short, weak, male misogynist. Like, Doctor Psycho's earliest plot was involved with getting rid of women's contributions to WW2. You literally can't get any "more woke" than Wonder Woman, she and her comics have always been like this. https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_Vol_1_5 https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_Vol_1_5 > Mars, the God of War, receives a report from one of his slave girls. She tells him how women are taking a more active role in the U.S.'s war efforts. Mars does not want to see women rise to power and escape the domination of man so he sends the Duke of Deception to Earth in order to create distrust toward female members of the U.S. military.
  - jimmydorry 4y ago
    I think GP missed the mark on Wonder Woman 1984 (and it certainly didn't bomb in cinemas like the other recent examples of "wokeism" have) but you have missed the crux of their argument. Wonder Woman was something new and distinctly its own. It wasn't a genderbent Wolverine or Iron Man. Taking an existing IP and applying a hamfisted, different world outlook to it that goes against all prior character / world building and audience expectations is jarring. Notice that Wonder Woman 1984 (73%) didn't bomb spectacularly like Ghost Busters (49% rotten tomatoes), Oceans 8 (46%) etc. have.
    - krapp 4y ago
      Comics do "different world outlooks" all the time. Batgirl as a character goes back to the 1960s, and basically every male superhero has had a female version at this point.
      - jimmydorry 4y ago
        I was only referring to blockbuster movies, as that is what GP referred to and what the article was about. There are no moden Batgirl movies and I can't think of any superhero movies that took their character in a new direction that didn't flop.
      - dragontamer 4y ago
        > and basically every male superhero has had a female version at this point. And a male kid-version. Ex: Superboy. Kid Flash. Robin. Aqualad. They even get together and form a kid-version of the Justice League (Young Justice), actually another team because there are so many of them (Teen Titans). Complaining about slightly-altered superheroes in kid / female / minority / gay / lesbian / whatever form is... weird? Like comics have been doing this for decades. Its been going on for so long, that the "kid version" have grown up and made their own superhero teams. Robin grew up into Nightwing and leads the Outsiders. Batgirl grew up into Oracle and leads the Birds of Prey. In some cases, the "female" version outstrips the original in popularity. Zatara may be the original DC stage magician, but his daughter Zatanna is definitely the more popular comic book superheroine.
    - dragontamer 4y ago
      > It wasn't a genderbent Wolverine or Iron Man But Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) was a genderbent Batman. Supergirl is gender-bent Superman. In fact, every male superhero has a female counterpart. Captain Marvel / Shazam has Mary Marvel. Superman has Supergirl. Batman has Batgirl, actually 3 different batgirls. --------- The only question for "longtime DC Fans" for Batgirl is: are they doing Cassandra Cain or are they doing Barbara Gordon? There's like 3+ long-running batgirl stories that go back decades. Besides, both Cassandra Cain and Barbara Gordon are both unique characters who take up the "Batgirl" costume to the disdain of Batman. Its not like the "obvious" genderswap version (Huntress / Helena Bertinelli) who was kind of "obviously" written to be a female-version of Batman. Cassandra Cain is League of Assassins originally. She never learned proper language / speaking skills and is overcoming illiteracy. She's unsocialized, extremely awkward, etc. etc. Barbara Gordon is Commissioner Gordon's daughter, and is often a bit campier as a result. (The Police Chief certainly doesn't want his daughter in danger, but she goes out and helps Batman anyway). She's more of a fangirl of Batman and arguably connects with female fans in a more natural way. Neither Cassandra Cain nor Barbara Gordon are rich, nor powerful, nor CEOs. Cassandra Cain was "League of Assassin" trained before Batman was (it was an interesting twist to have them train him in the 2000s era films, but that's really Cassandra / Damian's story) --------- The first "Batgirl" was in the 1960s, and "Barbara Gordon" version of Batgirl was all over the original 1960s campy "Batman" live action TV show. There's literally 60+ years of Batgirl history here. Its suddenly weird to complain of wokeism when the character has such a long history in comics and TV. ----------- The only criticism I have, is that they didn't do Batgirl sooner. After all, there was the "Birds of Prey" movie, and Batgirl should have "graduated" into Oracle (her full-time superhero gig) for the Birds of Prey to get together. Batgirl is kind of the "awkward fangirl" thing she does as a kid. In my groups where I talk about comic books, everyone was wondering where the hell Oracle was in the Birds of Prey movie.
- addicted 4y ago
  Lol, where do you live that the male:female ratio is so skewed? I feel sorry for you.
  - pipeline_peak 4y ago
    Where do you live that a ton of little girls want to see Batgirl…..yikes
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
https://deadline.com/2022/08/batgirl-scoob-discard-warnerbros-discovery-david-zaslav-jason-kilar-hbo-max-strategy-1235084032/ https://deadline.com/2022/08/batgirl-scoob-discard-warnerbro... Has more information on the 'why?': > But there were reasons for the move. In both cases, the filmmakers were told that it came down to a “purchase accounting” maneuver available to Warner Discovery because the company has changed hands, and also changed strategy from the previous regime. This opportunity expires in mid-August, said sources, and it allows Warner Bros Discovery to not have to carry the losses on its books at a time when the studio is trying to pare down $3 billion in debt across its divisions.

14 points by taubek 4y ago

Yikes must be really bad, eating a 70 mil loss is insane. Imagine if a tech company did something like that!

8jef 4y ago

What an absolute failure of imagination from management, totally on par with most unsavory and unremarkable products they usually peddle. So glad my kids finally grew out of all that superheroes crapfest.

pipeline_peak 4y ago

dragontamer 4y ago
Wonder Woman has always been a feminist symbol, with Doctor Psycho appearing as early as volume#5 to explicitly have Wonder Woman fight a short, weak, male misogynist. Like, Doctor Psycho's earliest plot was involved with getting rid of women's contributions to WW2. You literally can't get any "more woke" than Wonder Woman, she and her comics have always been like this. https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_Vol_1_5 https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_Vol_1_5 > Mars, the God of War, receives a report from one of his slave girls. She tells him how women are taking a more active role in the U.S.'s war efforts. Mars does not want to see women rise to power and escape the domination of man so he sends the Duke of Deception to Earth in order to create distrust toward female members of the U.S. military.
- jimmydorry 4y ago
  I think GP missed the mark on Wonder Woman 1984 (and it certainly didn't bomb in cinemas like the other recent examples of "wokeism" have) but you have missed the crux of their argument. Wonder Woman was something new and distinctly its own. It wasn't a genderbent Wolverine or Iron Man. Taking an existing IP and applying a hamfisted, different world outlook to it that goes against all prior character / world building and audience expectations is jarring. Notice that Wonder Woman 1984 (73%) didn't bomb spectacularly like Ghost Busters (49% rotten tomatoes), Oceans 8 (46%) etc. have.
  - krapp 4y ago
    Comics do "different world outlooks" all the time. Batgirl as a character goes back to the 1960s, and basically every male superhero has had a female version at this point.
    - jimmydorry 4y ago
      I was only referring to blockbuster movies, as that is what GP referred to and what the article was about. There are no moden Batgirl movies and I can't think of any superhero movies that took their character in a new direction that didn't flop.
    - dragontamer 4y ago
      > and basically every male superhero has had a female version at this point. And a male kid-version. Ex: Superboy. Kid Flash. Robin. Aqualad. They even get together and form a kid-version of the Justice League (Young Justice), actually another team because there are so many of them (Teen Titans). Complaining about slightly-altered superheroes in kid / female / minority / gay / lesbian / whatever form is... weird? Like comics have been doing this for decades. Its been going on for so long, that the "kid version" have grown up and made their own superhero teams. Robin grew up into Nightwing and leads the Outsiders. Batgirl grew up into Oracle and leads the Birds of Prey. In some cases, the "female" version outstrips the original in popularity. Zatara may be the original DC stage magician, but his daughter Zatanna is definitely the more popular comic book superheroine.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    > It wasn't a genderbent Wolverine or Iron Man But Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) was a genderbent Batman. Supergirl is gender-bent Superman. In fact, every male superhero has a female counterpart. Captain Marvel / Shazam has Mary Marvel. Superman has Supergirl. Batman has Batgirl, actually 3 different batgirls. --------- The only question for "longtime DC Fans" for Batgirl is: are they doing Cassandra Cain or are they doing Barbara Gordon? There's like 3+ long-running batgirl stories that go back decades. Besides, both Cassandra Cain and Barbara Gordon are both unique characters who take up the "Batgirl" costume to the disdain of Batman. Its not like the "obvious" genderswap version (Huntress / Helena Bertinelli) who was kind of "obviously" written to be a female-version of Batman. Cassandra Cain is League of Assassins originally. She never learned proper language / speaking skills and is overcoming illiteracy. She's unsocialized, extremely awkward, etc. etc. Barbara Gordon is Commissioner Gordon's daughter, and is often a bit campier as a result. (The Police Chief certainly doesn't want his daughter in danger, but she goes out and helps Batman anyway). She's more of a fangirl of Batman and arguably connects with female fans in a more natural way. Neither Cassandra Cain nor Barbara Gordon are rich, nor powerful, nor CEOs. Cassandra Cain was "League of Assassin" trained before Batman was (it was an interesting twist to have them train him in the 2000s era films, but that's really Cassandra / Damian's story) --------- The first "Batgirl" was in the 1960s, and "Barbara Gordon" version of Batgirl was all over the original 1960s campy "Batman" live action TV show. There's literally 60+ years of Batgirl history here. Its suddenly weird to complain of wokeism when the character has such a long history in comics and TV. ----------- The only criticism I have, is that they didn't do Batgirl sooner. After all, there was the "Birds of Prey" movie, and Batgirl should have "graduated" into Oracle (her full-time superhero gig) for the Birds of Prey to get together. Batgirl is kind of the "awkward fangirl" thing she does as a kid. In my groups where I talk about comic books, everyone was wondering where the hell Oracle was in the Birds of Prey movie.
addicted 4y ago
Lol, where do you live that the male:female ratio is so skewed? I feel sorry for you.
- pipeline_peak 4y ago
  Where do you live that a ton of little girls want to see Batgirl…..yikes

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

https://deadline.com/2022/08/batgirl-scoob-discard-warnerbros-discovery-david-zaslav-jason-kilar-hbo-max-strategy-1235084032/ https://deadline.com/2022/08/batgirl-scoob-discard-warnerbro... Has more information on the 'why?': > But there were reasons for the move. In both cases, the filmmakers were told that it came down to a “purchase accounting” maneuver available to Warner Discovery because the company has changed hands, and also changed strategy from the previous regime. This opportunity expires in mid-August, said sources, and it allows Warner Bros Discovery to not have to carry the losses on its books at a time when the studio is trying to pare down $3 billion in debt across its divisions.