- “Avengers: Endgame” co-director Joe Russo blamed “corporate sociopathy” for “Batgirl” being scrapped.
- Warner Bros. Discovery canceled the HBO Max release of the DC movie.
- Russo said it’s rare for “something that high profile, that expensive” to be “murdered in such a way.”
Joe Russo, who directed Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” and Netflix’s “Gray Man” with his brother Anthony, thinks “corporate sociopathy” led to “Batgirl” getting scrapped.
“It’s rare that I can think of something that high profile, that expensive, that was murdered in such a way,” Russo told Variety regarding “Batgirl,” in a story published on Wednesday.
“It’s sad, but we’re at a time in the business where corporate sociopathy is going to rear its head because people are scared,” he added.
Warner Bros. Discovery canceled the release of “Batgirl” earlier this year after the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger completed, as the company looked to cut down on costs.
Outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported that the company canned the $90 million-budgeted movie in favor of a tax writedown.
In a company earnings call shortly after, CEO David Zaslav noted that the company’s goal is to “protect the DC brand,” and defended the theatrical experience, saying it didn’t see a straight-to-streaming movie as a viable business strategy.
The Russo brothers, though, have embraced both theaters and streaming.
“Avengers: Endgame” is the second-biggest movie at the worldwide box office of all time, behind “Avatar.” “The Gray Man” hit Netflix after just a week in theaters, and is the streamer’s No. 4 biggest movie ever.
They’re also developing a big-budget spy series for Amazon, called “Citadel,” that would launch multiple spinoffs set in international markets.
