Four years after Warner Bros. Discovery pulled Batgirl from release, J.K. Simmons is still talking about it.
The Oscar-winning actor, who played Commissioner Gordon in the film directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, recently revisited the studio's decision to shelve the project. According to Deadline, Simmons spoke about it on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, calling the choice "bizarre."
"It's bizarre," he said. "Apparently, one test audience saw it, and you know, it wasn't like it was a bad score from the test audience. It was a whatever business decision obviously, and then, Justice League, which was a very small part, had its own drama attached to it. But then Zack's cut… the director's cut came out, which the DC fans really love."
Simmons added, "When Batgirl came along with Adil and Bilall, it was an exciting prospect to be part of the origin story of Batgirl. For those who don't know, Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Maybe we'll never know… We really had a good time making it and thought it was going to be a fun superhero movie. Oh well."
Batgirl starred Leslie Grace as the Gotham City desk cop turned vigilante. The cast also included Brendan Fraser, Jacob Scipio and Ivory Aquino. Michael Keaton reprised his role as Bruce Wayne, a part he had first played in Batman in 1989 and Batman Returns in 1992.
The film's shelving came during a broader purge by WBD of completed projects tied to the company's merger. Other titles caught in that wave included Scoob!: Holiday Haunt and Coyote vs. Acme. Coyote vs. Acme has since found a distributor in Ketchup Entertainment.
Simmons did not say whether he believes the film will ever be released publicly.
