Director Joss Whedon is jumping ship from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the film franchise’s Distinguished Competition.
The folks at Variety report that Whedon is nearing a deal to produce, write, and direct a standalone Batgirl film, based on the DC Comics character, focusing on Commissioner Gordon’s famous high-flying daughter Barbara Gordon’s superheroics in Gotham City. Despite having been created 50 years ago and appearing in live-action and cartoon television series and on the silver screen, this will be Batgirl’s first solo movie.
So far, there’s no word on who will be portraying Barbara Gordon and her caped alter ego or which characters from the Bat-universe will be cropping up, so let the speculating begin.
The last superhero film Whedon directed was Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which hit in 2015 and, according to interviews, appeared to burn him out on the superhero genre for a bit. That’s why it’s heartening to see him back in the director’s chair, especially tackling Batgirl’s story. Babs deserves a solid film for her big solo debut and Whedon, who created TV series such as Firefly, Dollhouse, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, can craft strong, well-rounded female characters like few other artists out there.
This is announcement is on the heels of last month’s reveal that Batman character Nightwing will also be getting a standalone film. It’s nice to see both Batgirl and Nightwing to get some much-deserved attention.
[Source: Variety]