If we can’t protect the DC Extended Universe, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it. That seems to be the M.O. for the new management behind Warner Bros.’ DC Comics film adaptations as Joss Whedon is in talks to write, direct, and produce a Batgirl standalone movie. Variety broke the news earlier on Thursday and Nerdist has since confirmed it with sources close to the project.
The news may come as a shock given the fact that Joss Whedon seemed well and truly done with the superhero genre after writing and directing Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron for Disney and Marvel, but the badassery of Barbara Gordon is evidently too much for him to resist. It also makes sense, historically speaking, since Whedon came extremely close to writing and directing a Wonder Woman film for Warner Bros. back in the early 2000s. While Patty Jenkins is now going to be bringing Diana of Themyscira, Whedon seems particularly well suited to bring the longtime fan favorite and seminal member of Gotham City’s bat-based crimefighters to the big screen.
Batgirl is long overdue for a starring role, and no The LEGO Batman Movie doesn’t count. Batgirl has been a staple of DC Comics since her first appearance in 1967’s “The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl,” written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Carmine Infantino. The daughter of Gotham City Police Department’s head honcho Commissioner Jim Gordon, Barbara Gordon has fought crime alongside Batman as Batgirl over the years, kicking ass and taking as many names as the World’s Greatest Detective himself. In the wake of The Killing Joke, she rebranded herself as the information broker Oracle after a brutal assault by the Joker left her paralyzed and traumatized. In particular, the recent “The Batgirl of Burnside” story arc from Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr, and Brenden Fletcher seems ideally suited to Whedon’s sensibilities as it recontextualized Barbara Gordon as a Ph.D. student living in Gotham’s hip Burnside neighborhood.
Here’s hoping that we’ll get to see this iconic moment reenacted on the big screen:
via GIPHY
The Internet was quick to express its rapture at the news of Whedon’s involvement.
JOSS WHEDON IS DIRECTING A BATGIRL MOVIE.
WHAT? pic.twitter.com/wABgYSHfUW
— Eren | Caboose (@CabooseEK) March 30, 2017
Joss Whedon to direct a Batgirl movie?! Wow… did not see that coming… but I have a lot of confidence in that!
— William Gordon (@BGordonMusic) March 30, 2017
Joss directing Batgirl?
Hope springs eternal
— Ashley Esqueda (@AshleyEsqueda) March 30, 2017
However, not everyone was quite so stoked on yet another straight white dude directing a comic book movie, especially one fronted by a female superhero.
https://twitter.com/rustypolished/status/847491253000314880
https://twitter.com/shellheads/status/847488073222860801
https://twitter.com/piratehojo/status/847487842418778113
We will continue to monitor this development with bated breath and have more analysis as to what this portends for the DC Extended Universe in the days and weeks ahead.
What do you think of Joss Whedon directing a Batgirl movie? Let us know in the comments below.
Image: DC Comics
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).
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