Michael Keaton's Batman was going to be retired in the canceled Batgirl movie.
thedirect.com
Interesting article that brings a lot of quotes from someone who saw these recent inter-company funeral screenings of Batgirl. Found the following quotes interesting, and honestly, right in line with what I was guessing for the movie:
“A source of my said: ‘I saw Batgirl, certainly not the worst superhero movie but ultimately, I understand why they took the right down.’ I asked this individual elaborate a little further and was told it's basically essentially an expensive CW pilot, which is what I heard it was.”
“It plays like a very expensive CW pilot. It's not really a strong film, the tone is just very CW, lacking in depth, lighter, and more comic book-like, which is odd because Michael Keaton’s in it. It’s finally lighter than his Tim Burton films. Currently, it's about an hour and 40-plus minutes. It's basically an hour, 40 minutes CW pilot. With a pretty good action set piece at the end from what I'm told. And again, not the worst superhero film I've ever seen.”
“It's obviously shot for television as it was for HBO Max. So, it's like so everything is in the center of the screen and I’m being told it just doesn't feel cinematic which is something they probably could have corrected if they did some additional photography. But ultimately, the powers that be decided it wasn't worth the tens of millions it would have cost to do that.”
Anyway, these are all the reasons I was totally for Zaslov scrapping this project and I'm not surprised the least for these comments. The minute I saw Batgirl's CW looking at best costume, it had me worried that this movie would turn into an expensive CW pilot, which is exactly what it looks like it turned out like. The damage that could do to the already hurting DCEU and the character just isn't worth it. Also, as much as I love Keaton's Batman, I'm sorry, I don't want a DCEU moving forward whose primary Batman is an old retired one simply in an advisory role. I want to see Batman being Batman. He doesn't need to be replaced by Batgirl. Why can't we have both at the same time, which is what I've always wanted. Shoot, keep Leslie Grace in the role for all I care. Just bring her in with a project and into a world where she doesn't replace Batman. Also, if we bring her into the fold, do it in a quality way that serves justice to her character without a cheap CW suit or cheap CW budget. Lets not forget Catwoman, one of our first female and minority-led superhero movies, which ended up doing more harm for the cause than good. Let's bring in Batgirl to the DCEU and do her justice. Give me that!!!!