Following the recent leak of the shortlist of actresses in the running for HBO Max’s upcoming Batgirl movie, a decision has been made. According to The Wrap, singer/actress Leslie Grace has beaten out Zoey Deutch (Zombieland: Double Tap, The Disaster Artist), Isabela Merced (Transformers: The Last Knight, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) and Haley Lu Richardson (Split) to earn the right to don the cowl in the streaming film.
Grace, whose acting career so far consists entirely of her role in Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of In The Heights, will be the first actress to play Barbara Gordon in a live-action film. Casting an actress of Dominican decent is sure to rile up the worst denizens of the internet. But fuck those guys, we’re all tired of hearing about whatever nerd controversy they’re Chicken Little-ing over on any given day.
Birds of Prey and Bumblebee scribe Christina Hodson will be handling the script, while the Bad Boys for Life team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah will direct.
Batgirl is expected to be separate from both Affleck and Pattinson Batman franchises, so neither JK Simmons nor Jeffrey Wright are likely to reprise their roles as Jim Gordon in the film.