It’s been another interesting day for Warner Bros. and the studio’s handling of its DC Comics properties, with Batgirl ruthlessly being given the axe after an estimated $90 million has been spent, with the origin story for Leslie Grace’s Barbara Gordon in the final stages of post-production. Naturally, it wasn’t long before the fate of Peacemaker cropped up.
New CEO David Zaslav has been cutting costs and every turn, and it seems very unlikely that Batgirl will ever see the light of day when the most recent spate of reports have indicated releasing the superhero flick in any form on any platform will prevent it from being a tax write-off. That’s incredibly harsh, but it’s also business.
Having already been given the okay for a second season, John Cena’s foul-mouthed Christopher Smith is looking to capitalize on the acclaim and widespread popularity that greeted his first run of offbeat adventures, but alarm bells were set ringing when the Batgirl news broke. Thankfully, Gunn was quick to reassure his supporters that Peacemaker would be just fine.
Blue Beetle, Black Canary, and Zatanna should probably be sh*tting their pants right about now, and in the case of the former, it’s clear that WB doesn’t care if shooting is or was underway. As a TV series, Peacemaker probably got a lot more leeway from the top brass, especially when the viewing figures indicated that it was one of HBO Max’s most popular in-house exclusives.
Either way, these are strange times for the DCEU, even if fans are used to it by now.