Following on from last week’s news that Joss Whedon is directing a Batgirl movie for Warner Brothers as part of their DCEU, now comes a few more details on the film.

First and foremost, as per EW, Batgirl will indeed focus on the New 52 version of the character, specifically the incarnation of Batgirl that was written by Gail Simone.

For those not well-versed in the so-so New 52 relaunch that DC did back in 2011, that reboot positioned Barbara Gordon as having overcome the paralysis that she suffered following the Joker shooting her through her spine in Alan Moore’s iconic The Killing Joke. Thanks to experimental surgery, Babs is able to walk again and takes on the mantle of Batgirl once more, although she’s often haunted by her horrendous, traumatic meeting with the Clown Prince of Crime in Moore’s beloved tale. As well as winning plenty of plaudits for how the Barbara character was written under Simone’s watch, the series also made waves by introducing the comic book world’s first openly transgender character, Babs’ best friend Alysia Yeoh.

Given how Batgirl will pull inspiration from Gail Simone’s work with the character, that means we should expect a gritty and intense tone to the film. Also, of course, given how the DCEU has been set up, this will be a Babs who is the daughter of J.K. Simmons’ Jim Gordon and who has earned her stripes under Ben Affleck’s Batman.

Previously, there was suggestion that Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle would actually be one of the main characters in David Ayer’s Gotham City Sirens, although we’ll have to wait and see what happens on that front. For that movie, the only confirmed cast member is the returning Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and she’ll be leading a film that’s full of some of DC’s most beloved female characters – with Babs amongst the likes of Black Canary and Catwoman as those tipped to appear alongside Harleen.

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.

Expect to hear a whole lot more on Batgirl as we get it.