DC has a full movie slate – and a lot of those movies will be heading straight to HBO Max. Of all the movies set to premiere on the streaming service, however, Batgirl remains the most important one, not just in terms of the character it’s introducing, but also because of the future possibilities it raises.
Fans have seen a great deal of Barbara Gordon over the years, both as Batgirl and as Oracle, and though the character’s story in animation and video games is vast, there have also been a great number of live-action appearances. The first one was Yvonne Craig’s librarian version of Barbara Gordon in the Batman television series, in the 60s. Then, of course, came the short-lived Birds of Prey TV show, where it was Oracle fans got to see, not Batgirl. Dina Meyer played the character in that occasion, and Meyer also voiced the character on the Crisis on Infinite Earths Arrowverse crossover.
Gotham also had its own version of the character, renamed Barbara Lee Gordon and played by Jeté Laurence. Finally, the character currently appears on the third season of another HBO Max series – Titans – where she’s portrayed by Savannah Welch. On the big screen Alicia Silverstone portrayed Barbara Wilson/Batgirl on 1997’s Batman & Robin, though in this version she wasn’t Jim Gordon’s daughter but Alfred Pennyworth’s niece. In the Dark Knight actress Hannah Gunn briefly portrayed Gordon’s daughter, even though she’s not named in the film.
The myriad versions of the character mean Leslie Grace, who is set to play Barbara Gordon on HBO Max’s movie, has a lot of room for comparison, but it also means it won’t be that hard to stand out. Fans have, after all, already had to adjust to many different versions of Barbara Gordon. One more shouldn’t be a problem. Then there’s the fact that this version of Batgirl carries a lot more weight – and potential expectations – than all the others have.
DC has introduced many a version of Batman to the big screen. There have, however, not been many versions of Robin – Chris O’Donnell’s Dick Grayson stands out – and no movie outside of the much-reviled Batman & Robin has even attempted to focus on the Bat Family. With the idea of shared universes and separate heroes who interact with each other now the norm, it would be interesting for DC to establish the possibility of bringing the different members of the Bat Family together. That doesn’t necessarily start with Batman – particularly as the DCEU has multiple versions of the character right now – but with Batgirl.
If the movie is a success, then it seems likely the entire DCEU storyline around Batman shifts to accommodate lesser-known members of the “family” who have gotten little to no screen time outside of Titans. Considering the existence of the Arrowverse, that shouldn’t even affect Titans, as DC has always been content to let two different versions of the same character exist on different mediums. And DC doesn’t even have to bring Batman into it right away. They could establish the rest of the characters around him without making any decision on the Caped Crusader just yet.
But that’s not the only possibility a successful Batgirl movie brings. The original Birds of Preywas more a Harley Quinn movie than a Birds of Prey movie, though it did introduce most of the members of the team. The one notable absence? Oracle, aka Barbara Gordon. Though the storyline that takes Gordon from Batgirl to Oracle is tragic, and not something DC would probably want to tackle in the character’s first solo movie, the fact that Oracle now exists alongside Huntress and Black Canary in the DCEU – and that Black Canary is getting her own movie, means a second Birds of Prey movie remains a possibility.
The Batgirl movie should be about Batgirl – just as the Black Canary movie should focus on her, instead of the secondary people involved in either of their storylines. But the possibilities both movies carry are interesting, to say the least. Black Canary could open up a side of the DC comics universe that has only been seen in the Arrowverse, and Batgirl carries with it the possibility of bringing important characters in the Batman lore to the screen.
If Batgirl seems a tad more important, it’s just because the storyline around the characters in the Bat Family hasn’t been explored as much, and because she’s got the possibility of being at the center of two important groups of superheroes. But with some luck, both movies will be a success and the biggest question about the DCEU universe going forward won’t be how many versions of the same character fans can get. Instead, it will be about all the heroes who are finally getting their chance to shine in live-action. For fans, that’s the ultimate goal.