‘Batgirl’: Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Says Movie’s Shelving Was “Blown Out Of Proportion”

Warner Bros. Discovery‘s surprising decision to shelve “Batgirl” early last month sparked controversy around the industry. The news also raised many questions about the future of two of the company’s biggest enterprises, the DCEU and HBO Max. After all, it’s not every day a studio axes a movie with a $90 million budget that’s in post-production. Or a film that serves as a launching pad for exclusive content on their big, new streaming channel. That’s kinda-sorta a big deal.

READ MORE: ‘Batgirl’: Cancelled Film To Get “Funeral Screenings” On Warner Bros. Lot This Week

Well, apparently it’s not a big deal at all for the people at Warner Bros. Discovery. Deadline reports that the company’s CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels feels as if the “Batgirl” shelving has been “blown out of proportion.” These comments came at the Bank Of America Media, Communications And Entertainment Conference. When asked whether his company’s reputation had taken a hit based on “Batgirl” and other cancellations of HBO Max shows, Weidenfels denied a backlash. “Media likes to talk about media, I guess,” he said. Well, then.

Moderator Jessica Reif Erlich, a BofA analysis, backed up Wiedenfels’s statemetns, calling the “Batgirl” cancellation a “prudent business decision.” After Erlich asked Wiedenfels if it represented a brand reset for the DCEU, he replied, “No. … There’s a new team coming in, forming a view, providing a financial framework to assess these things.” He then added, “The focus is, on a go-forward basis here, we’re spending more than ever in the history of the two legacy companies on content. We will continue to make significant investments. We’ll make them differently and with a different financial rigor and a different focus on full utilization across all platforms, etc., but this is the lifeblood of the company and we’ll continue to be investing in it.”

So, reader, you heard it here first: canceling “Batgirl” and a slew of other DC-related series in development as HBO Max exclusives is not a brand reset. Nor does bringing in a new team to assess the studio’s financial future and future content. And looking for a new head for the DCEU also doesn’t count as a brand reset, either. Yup, David Zaslav’s clearing house since he became CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery indicates no big shake-ups either. This is just a newly merged company “continuing to make progress,” in Wiedenfels’s words. The waves of layoffs, canceled shows, and shelved movies are the results of a merger, nothing more. Nothing to see here, people: move along.

To be fair to Wiednefels, he is speaking at a financial conference, so it makes sense that his stance about Warner Bros. Discovery is based solely in financial terms. He reports that the company has already passed the $1 billion mark in synergies toward its close of $3 billion in cost savings, with “Batgirl” as a tax write-off to reach that desired number. All well and good on the economic end of things, but it still doesn’t explain the poor optics of canceling a movie with a Latina actress (Leslie Grace) in a lead role, among other troubling aspects surrounding the shelving of “Batgirl.” But again, not a topic one expects to be discussed at a financial conference.

In any case, “Batgirl” remains shelved, and Zaslav is still looking for a new leader for DC Films. Dan Lin reportedly doesn’t want the position, so the DCEU’s future remains open, in that respect. Who knows what may happen before “Black Adam” on October 21? Stay tuned to The Playlist to find out.