9 Actresses Who Could Play Batgirl In The DCU

IMAGE VIA ROCKSTEADY/ WB GAMES

Last week, Variety exclusively revealed Joss Whedon is close to a deal to write, direct and produced a Batgirl movie.

This film will be a part of the DCU and it came from a meeting between Whedon and DC Film co-chiefs Jon Berg and Geoff Johns and even though no other producers are attached, but Warner Bros president and chief content officer Toby Emmerich will be overseeing the project with Berg and Johns.

Entertainment Weekly followed this news up with their own sources revealing it will be the Barbara Gordon, daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon, Batgirl in Whedon’s film and it’ll be based on the New 52 version of the character.

IMAGE VIA DC COMICS

Just to give a background into The New 52 version of “Batgirl” was launched in 2011 by writer Gail Simone. Barbara Gordon had recovered from the paralysing attack she suffered from The Joker in “The Killing Joke” thanks to experimental back surgery. Even though she returned to her old crime-fighting ways, she suffers from PTSD.

EW says the movie will “follow Simone’s harder-edged storyline rather than the more comical, playful “Batgirl of Burnside” series that was rebooted in 2014, featuring the hero as a social-media-obsessed student living in a hipster neighbourhood of Gotham.”

EW did stress it’s unclear how much from this series will be incorporated into the film.

So like everyone when a comic book film is announced, we all go into fancast mode. So here are some of my choices to put on the cowl.

Madelaine Petsch, Lili Reinhart & Camila Mendes

IMAGE VIA TWITTER - LEFT TO RIGHT - MENDES, PETSCH & REINHART

If you’ve been watching the CW (Netflix in the UK) series Riverdale, you know who Petsch, Reinhart and Mendes are and for their know reasons could all play Barbara Gordon.

Petsch (22) is probably a lot of people’s list because she’s great in Riverdale and her character has a lot of depth that make you feel sympathy for her and we’ll be learning more as the series goes on. Plus, she’s an upcoming actress who you could build franchises and a series of films around and she’s utterly beautiful and a red head.

Reinhart (20) is another young actress who’d do a great job and is one of the (if not the) best in the show and could really bring the agony and sadness of having survivor guilt and like Petsch and Mendes could build the franchise and series around. Plus, she has that girl next door about her that little girls would want to be like.

Mendes (22) is beautiful and badass in Riverdale but also has her character depth. Barbara being a Latina shouldn’t be any issue, Jim could’ve married a Latina woman, and she could easily rock the red hair look. Again you can build the franchise around her and we can see Batgirl grow up, like Tim Holland’s Spider-Man.

Naomi Scott

IMAGE VIA LIONSGATE

We’ve just been introduced to the 23-year-old Scott in Power Rangers. She was great and easily in the top three best cast members in the film. She’s showed her acting and action chops if Lionsgate doesn’t make a Power Rangers sequel (they should) then I can’t see why couldn’t be Batgirl.

Anya Taylor – Joy

Even though she’s only 20 years old, Taylor – Joy is probably on WB’s list already for a number of DC characters – Killer Frost, Poison Ivy and now add Barbara Gordon. She’s also on Fox’s radar for an X-Men film and Marvel Studios from maybe Gwen Stacy?

The reason why she’s on so many people’s radar is because of her performances in films such as The Witch, Morgan and Split and these performances earned her a BAFTA Rising Star Award and won Empire Magazine’s Best Female Newcomer.

Emma Stone

Stone (28) is obviously the most cliché of choices because of the red hair that’s why she’s also on people’s fancast list for Poison Ivy too. However, I do think they have a point as Stone’s personally and acting style would work with Whedon’s directing style.

Plus, the fact getting another Oscar winner in the DCU wouldn’t be a bad thing and Stone could play different age ranges if they wanted to do The Killing Joke background in flashbacks.

Gugu Mbatha – Raw

Mbatha – Raw is likely the most unknown actress amongst my choices, but if you’ve seen “Belle” you’ll know how talented the 33-year-old British actress is. However, she’s starred as Plumette in Beauty and the Beast, in the recent series of Black Mirror and will be Ava Duvernay’s A Wrinkle in Time.

I know some people will have an issue with the fact she’s black, but that could be easily solved with Jim married a black woman. Like Stone, Mbatha – Raw could easily pull off the different age ranges if they added flashbacks.

Rosario Dawson

At 37 years old, Dawson is the oldest of the actresses I’ve chosen and probably a better choice to play Catwoman, but if WB and Wheldon wanted to go with a Batgirl who has a full backstory and history, then there’s no better actress than Dawson.

Plus, if her run on the Marvel/Netflix series is coming to an end in Defenders then way not join the DCU after doing a great job being the voice of Batgirl in The LEGO Batman Movie.

Emma Watson

IMAGE VIA DISNEY

Watson is probably the best actress for the job because being 26 years old, she’s bang on the age to play the ideal Barbara Gordon to build an arc where she could be just coming back into crime fighting and nearing the end of college.

Let's not forget Watson is a box office draw with plenty of us going up with her as Hermione in Harry Potter and now kids are knowing her as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.