Trivia / Batgirl

• Exiled from Continuity:
  • At the start of the Pre-Crisis Continuity, Barbara was made the first Batgirl. This caused a bit of complications due to Bette being a member of the Titans West. As a result, Wolfman decided to retcon away her times as Batgirl with her participation in the formation of the Titans West being under the mantle of "Flamebird". Bette's history as Batgirl eventually came back with Young Justice and Batman (Grant Morrison).
  • In the wake of DC's New 52 reboot, former Batgirls Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown have been declared off-limits by editorial. Gail Simone pitched a team book that would have starred Stephanie, Bumblebee, Misfit, and Black Alice, but it was not approved, and Steph was subsequently pulled from a scheduled guest appearance in the Smallville comic. Meanwhile, Cass has not been seen or mentioned in Batman Inc, despite the fact that she was one of Bruce's agents (as well as the Batman of China) in the pre-New 52 volume.
  • Scott Snyder and Grant Morrison also have mentioned wanting to use them, but being barred. Those two are also bunched with Donna Troy and pre-New 52 Wally West in the exiled club. This also led to the creation of Harper Row by Scott Snyder, who was created to be a Expy of Cass after he was barred from using her.
  • Stephanie finally turned up in a cameo in 2014 in Batman #28, and later as a newly debuted Spoiler in Batman Eternal. Donna Troy (or at least some version of her) was introduced in Meredith & David Finch's run on Wonder Woman. Cassandra returned in Batman and Robin Eternal, while Wally returned in DC Rebirth.
• Screwed by the Network: Stephanie's book was cancelled to make way for the relaunch. Cassandra Cain was pretty much in the same boat though got it much worse since hers was way before that point. Dumb thing too was that the book was doing well and was well liked by her fans. But the higher ups didn't share the same sentiments when it came to the character and ended her book.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the early 2000's writer Gail Simone pitched an idea for the direction of Cassandra Cain's series if she had taken over as its writer. Cassandra, after saving a Protestant minister from a vicious robbery, would continuously visit him in the hospital and, over time, become a devout Christian and convert after seeing the strength of his personal devotion and willingness to forgive his attackers. Her activities would shift to a protective role over the more downtrodden members of Gotham society, the transients and homeless and runaways, and she would switch to an all-white costume. Eventually she would become known as "Angel of the Bat" instead of Batgirl. Gail, a self-professed atheist whose comics often exemplify her "liberal" viewpoints, said that her intention was to represent a part of society that is extremely neglected in comics, as almost all depictions of religious or conservative figures was as dogmatic, prejudiced and stupid characters. She wanted an example of the transformative power of faith and felt that, even if it did not match her own beliefs, it would be a good exploration of the character. Instead, Cass made an apparent Face–Heel Turn and became a leader of the League of Assassins. As Simone put it, apparently, becoming a Christian is more controversial than becoming a serious murderer.
  • The miniseries "Batman: Gates of Gotham" was originally conceived as a solo story about Cassandra. The final product heavily featured her, but she had to share it with her brothers.
  • The montage of the Black Mercy induced coma dreams Stephanie has at the end of her ongoing series hinted at further storylines.
  • When DC decided that they didn't want Cassandra to be Batgirl anymore, they initially decided to put Barbara Gordon back in the role. When that was shelved, they wanted to replace her with Charlie, but her creator, Gail Simone, wrote a long letter to DC explaining why Charlie wasn't a good fit for the role and they respected her wishes. So, instead, Stephanie Brown was Batgirl for two years, after which Barbara Gordon returned to the costume.
  • Batgirl was going to receive a series in the All-Star DC Comics line, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by J G Jones, and been a story akin to The Long Halloween, but due to the negative reception of All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder (although Barbara Gordon appears in ASBAR, this version would've been unconnected), leading to the line being shelved in favor of Earth One.
  • The unreleased Batgirl film directed by Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah for HBO Max starring Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser and Michael Keaton that was quite shockingly shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022 while it was in post-production due to cost-cutting measures, a tax write-off and a refocus of the company on theatrical releases. The directors tried to save the footage (likely for personal use) but found out it was deleted from the servers that they had access to. Considering it cost $90 million to produce, it is one of the most expensive unreleased films ever made.
  • Bette Kane, who had at that point had been Put on a Bus at the start of the Rebirth run of Detective Comics, was planned to make an appearance in Batgirls. The run's cancellation meant to never came to fruition.

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