‘Batgirl’ Actresses Testing For Lead Role This Week – Here’s Who Could Don The Cape And Cowl
Warner Bros. has never known exactly what to do with the Barbra Gordon character in its live-actionBatmanmovies. Alicia Silverstone’s leather jacket-clad iteration fromBatman & Robindidn’t make the splash the studio was hoping for, but nearly 25 years later, WB is finally ready to put this character in the spotlight with a soloBatgirlmovie.
No one has been cast in the upcoming film quite yet, but studio executives are evidently expecting to test a group of performers for the lead role this week, and a few names are being reported as potential contenders. Let’s break them down one by one.
Isabela Merced
Deadline reports that Merced is “expected to test” for the part. You may recognize Merced from her starring turn inDora and the Lost City of Goldor when she played the young female lead inTransformers: The Last Knight. Since then, she starred in the Netflix movieLet It Snowand lent her voice to a character inSpirit: Untamed.
Zoey Deutch
Deutch starred in Richard Linklater’s college baseball hangout movieEverybody Want Some!!, the time-loop mysteryBefore I Fall, Ruben Fleischer’s long-gestating sequelZombieland: Double Tap, and in Claire Scanlon’s delightfulSet It Up, where Deutch instantly established herself as someone who can operate within the rom-com genre at an extremely high level.
Leslie Grace
Grace’s first film role was as Nina in Warner Bros.' musicalIn the Heights, in which she memorably danced on the side of a building with Corey Hawkins. Her existing relationship with the studio on that film might be key in potentially locking down this part.
Haley Lu Richardson
Richardson is one of the most talented and versatile performers of her generation, doing excellent work inThe Edge of Seventeen,Columbus,Support the Girls, and the woefully under-the-radar HBO Max comedyUnpregnant.
While Deadline says Richardson “might have bowed out before the test process,“The Wrapreports that not only has Richardsonnotbowed out, but that she and Leslie Grace are currently the top two contenders for the starring role.
Warner Bros. has decided to make this movie directly for HBO Max streaming service instead of theaters, but the movie landscape is in such a state of flux right now that it’s hard to say if that decision will hold by the time this eventually gets released.Christina Hodson, who wroteBirds of Preyand the upcomingThe Flashfilm for DC,wrote theBatgirlscreenplayafter Joss Whedon exited the movie.Adil El ArbiandBilall Fallah, who directed last year’sBad Boys For Life, have beenhired to direct. By the time cameras roll, they’ll have served as executive producers and directors on Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ seriesMs. Marvel, so they’ll have superhero experience before turning their full attention to Barbra Gordon’s story.
