Batgirl and Zatanna projects are officially in the works at Warner Bros. for HBO Max. At AT&T’s investor presentation on Friday, Warner Bros. addressed some of their upcoming projects based on DC comic books. Along with well-publicized titles that are already known to be in development, from Black Adam to The Batman, the rumored Batgirl and Zatanna projects have been officially confirmed.
There have been attempts to get Warner Bros.’ Batgirl movie off the ground for years. At one point, Joss Whedon was attached to the project before creative differences led to his exit. It was later reported in 2018 that Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey) had since stepped in to work on the script. It’s unclear if Hodson is still attached to the Batgirl movie, but there’s no indication that she isn’t. Soon after she was attached to the project years ago, Hodson spoke about her work with Batgirl and noted that they were about to start the casting process.
“[Batgirl is] cool. With all of these characters – the ones that I’m creating and that are original, like Charlie, and the ones I’m getting to inherit and play with – they’re independent, intelligent, capable, interesting and nuanced, and nuanced really is the main thing,” Hodson told Collider in 2018. “They’re not one thing or another. They are flawed, complex, beautiful, wonderful, weird, and fully rounded and fully fleshed out characters. We’ve got so many great actresses out there, that are ready to play these roles, that it’s fun to be writing roles for them.”
As for Zatanna, the project appears to be a TV series rather than a movie, but there most details about the project are still unknown beyond that it’s officially a go at Warner Bros. It was mentioned as a possible project for the streamer last summer, but it hadn’t been officially confirmed up until now. Created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, Zatanna has been appearing in DC Comics since 1964. A legitimate magician who also performs on stage, a live-action version of Zatanna was previously played by Serinda Swan on Smallville.
The next DC release to come from Warner Bros. will be the four-hour cut of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Not officially a part of DCEU canon, the movie serves as a follow-up to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It may very well be the last DC project we’ll see from Snyder, as the filmmaker doesn’t see Warner Bros. ordering any Justice League sequels anytime soon. Superman is also in the process of getting rebooted, making a Man of Steel sequel incredibly unlikely as well.
Several DC shows will also be developed exclusively for HBO Max. The hit animated series Harley Quinn is currently in production on season 3 to debut exclusively on the streamer following a prior run on DC Universe. John Cena is also set to reprise his role from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad for the spinoff TV series Peacemaker. Meanwhile, The Batman is also getting a spinoff series at HBO Max following the officers of the Gotham City Police Department.
There isn’t any information yet on when Batgirl or Zatanna will be released. This news comes to us from Collider.