With many fans hugely excited at the news of Joss Whedon developing a Batgirl movie for Warner Brothers, those same fans took a gut punch just a few months ago when Whedon departed the project, citing the strange reason that he just simply had no ideas for the narrative of the picture. Well now, that film has taken a huge move in getting back on track.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Warners has brought in Christina Hodson to begin work on a new screenplay for the film. Hodson has some previous with the Barbara Gordon character, having penned a script for a Birds of Prey-based movie at The WB back in 2016. Her other credits include Shut In, Unforgettable, and the upcoming Bumblebee.

The standard Batgirl character was created way back in 1967 – although a Golden Age version was around in the early-60s – with Jim Gordon’s daughter Barbara under the cape and cowl. She’d soon join Batman and Robin in helping to fight the good fight and protect Gotham City. Over the decades, Barbara hit some major stumbling blocks, most notably being paralyzed by The Joker as part of his plan to “break” Jim Gordon during the fan favourite The Killing Joke story. But not even paralysis could stop Barbara from helping out Batman, for she then oversaw things from afar as Oracle. As mentioned, Babs would return to action as Batgirl in later years, although others such as Casandra Cain and Stephanie Brown have also taken on the Batgirl mantle at times.

In terms of live-action takes on Batgirl, Yvonne Craig played the role in the 1960s Batman TV show, with Alicia Silverstone then playing a version of the character (we’re still not happy that she was Alfred’s niece!) in 1997’s Batman & Robin.

For Batgirl, the movie is set to be part of Warners’ DC Extended Universe and is just one of a whole host of films all planned for the shared DCEU.

In addition to James Wan’s Aquaman swimming to the silver screen this December, there’s David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! set for April 2019, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 2 booked for November 2019, the Ray Fisher-headlined Cyborg for April 2020, a believed July 2020 date for Green Lantern Corps, and then plans for the Scarlet Speedster-centric Flashpoint, the Dwayne Johnson-starring Black Adam, Gavin O’Connor’s Suicide Squad 2, Chris McKay’s Nightwing, David Ayer’s Gotham City Sirens, a Harley Quinn picture for Margot Robbie, a joint outing for Harleen and the Joker, a Deathstroke movie, the long-gestating big-screen outing for the Justice League Dark team, a Birds of Prey-driven effort, a Deadshot picture, a Justice League follow-up, a Man of Steel sequel, a silver screen adventure for Lobo, and then, of course, Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which may or may not see Ben Affleck back in the cape and cowl. Oh, and then there’s Todd Phillips and Martin Scorsese’s Joker origin movie that’s being developed separately to the DCEU and currently has Joaquin Phoenix as the favourite to nab the Clown Prince of Crime gig.

Expect more on Batgirl as it continues to develop.

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