We hate to ruin your Wednesday—maybe even your week!—but Warner Bros. cancelled Scoob! Holiday Haunt, the sequel to 2020's animated Scoob! film. You'll never get to see Scooby Doo's first Christmas. WB? You should be ashamed.
In other news, as part of what's reportedly a fresh direction and financial shakeup from new leadership at WB, Batgirl has been scrapped, too. According to the New York Post, which first broke the news, the DC outing—which was originally set to hit HBO Max sometime this year—won't go anywhere. Not in theatres. Not on streaming services. The film, which reportedly cost somewhere in the ballpark of $90 million to make, and was even close to wrapping post-production, is officially going to the sad state of limbo where the Snyder Cut once lived. It's a shame, too, because this superhero jaunt starred Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Michael Keaton as Batman, and Brendan Fraser as its villain, Firefly.
“The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson told The Wrap in a statement. “Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future.”
You're asking why, right? Why deliver a blow to the Brendan Fraserssaince? Snub fans of Keaton's Batman return and Ziegler's surely fresh take on Gordon? Loaded question. If you consult the Post's reporting, the movie, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, wasn't playing with audiences well in test screenings. "Those tests were said to be so poorly received by moviegoers that the studio decided to cut its losses and run, for the sake of the brand’s future. It’s a DC disaster," the report claims. A source told the Post that executives at WB "think an unspeakable ‘Batgirl’ is going to be irredeemable.”
According to Variety, though, it's all about the green. The outlet's report, which details the thinking of a new regime at WB, details how the studio "will almost certainly take a tax write-down on both films, seen internally as the most financially sound way to recoup the costs (at least, on an accountant’s ledger)." That said, there are three sides to every story. The actual quality of the film surely had something to do with it, but given the questionable product DC has been giving us lately, financial concerns are surely at play, too. Pour one out for Batgirl and Scooby Doo tonight, people.
