Warner Bros. and DC will have to hang the Help Wanted sign on yet another project. Roughly a year since he signed on to write and direct a film featuring Batgirl, Joss Whedon has announced that he's leaving the movie.
Whedon, who was seen as something of a hopeful development for the DCEU when he was recruited to help finish Justice League and then confirmed as writer and director for the Batgirl film, has made his reasons for leaving clear in typically Whedonesque style. "Batgirl is such an exciting project, and Warners/DC such collaborative and supportive partners, that it took me months to realize I really didn’t have a story," Whedon tells The Hollywood Reporter. "I’m grateful to Geoff (Johns, DC president) and Toby (Emmerich, Warners Picture Group president) and everyone who was so welcoming when I arrived, and so understanding when I… uh, is there a sexier word for 'failed'?"
Perhaps this means Warners will now go looking for someone on the level of Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins to handle a character planned as another solid female character role in the DC movie universe. Whedon, meanwhile, will return to his own projects – he'd been working on a World War II tale and a horror script before he was asked to help out in the DC world, so chances are something will hit soon enough.
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.