BATGIRL Directors Tease The Dark Tone of the Film and Its BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES Influence
Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah recently opened up a bit about the upcoming DC film and teased what we can expect from the style and tone.
Before they jumped on board Batgirl, the two directors worked on Marvel’s Ms. Marvel series, and when comparing Batgirl to Ms. Marvel, they explained that Batgirl is going to be much darker, which I think was expected by most fans. After all, Gotham City is a much darker and grittier place than New Jersey. El Arbi told /Film:
"The thing is that it's also an origin story, but obviously, Batgirl is in Gotham City, so it's going to be much darker than Ms. Marvel, and our main character is older. I mean, she's not a teenager, she already has a job."
In the film, Barbara Gordon (Leslie Grace) is a Gotham City Police Officer and the daughter of police commissioner Jim Gordon (J.K. Simmons). When talking about the version of Gotham City that we’ll see, it’s influenced by the ‘90s Batman: The Animated Series and Tim Burton's Batman movies. Arbi said:
"I think that we're still going to try to have the same visual vibrancy that is our trademark, you could say, and homages to the comic book, homages also to the animated series of Batman, and the Tim Burton movies. So that's what we're trying to do with that, but obviously, it's going to be a bit darker than Ms. Marvel's world."
In a previous interview with Grace, she talked about her character, saying:
"[Her origin story] is crazy dark, like a lot of other superheroes, but I like that she becomes Batgirl because she wants to make a difference in the world. She feels like people underestimate her as Barbara Gordon, and I relate to that. ... It's that energy of being self-determined."
“You can't be afraid to be your own hero, and I think girls need to see that. We all need to see characters that are willing to be autonomous."
Lesley is joined in the film by Michael Keaton as Batman, Brendan Fraser as the villain, JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, with Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life), Rebecca Front (The Thick of It), Corey Johnson (Hellboy), and Ethan Kai (Killing Eve) in undisclosed roles.
The script for the film was written by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee, Birds of Prey). Kristin Burr, who recently worked on Cruella, is producing the film, which is going to be released exclusively on HBO Max.