When Jena Malone was cast in BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, the prevailing assumption was that she’d be playing the female Robin from The Dark Knight Returns, Carrie Kelley. Aside from Malone having an appropriate persona and the youthful look of the character, the film was going off of DKR closely enough that having Kelley in there wasn’t that big of a stretch. Plus, the character is currently part of the New 52 initiative, and has been made an official part of the current DC canon.
However, Latino Review has it different: that Malone will instead be introducing Barbara Gordon to the big screen for the first time.
That’s not a joke; despite being ubiquitous on nearly every TV adaptation of BATMAN (not to mention the video games), the closest Barb has gotten to being in one of the movies was in the DTV BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER. BATMAN & ROBIN doesn’t count, of course, seeing as they made Batgirl Alfred’s daughter, not Gordon’s.
So does that mean she’ll be suiting up as Batgirl over the course of this first flick? My guess is probably not. There’s already a cornucopia of caped heroes in this thing, and it doesn’t seem like the right venue to give Babs’ alter ego her first go in the sun. Plus, you figure we would've heard something about it by now, given how many details leaked through set reports, pictures, etc.
There’s no one announced as Commissioner Gordon just yet, but remember those rumors that Gordon would the one who died at the hands of the Joker instead of Jason Todd? Obviously, we’ve seen Todd’s defaced Robin suit, but maybe Gordon could still have shuffled off his mortal coil before Supes and Zod laser-Ginsued half of Metropolis.
LR claims that three sources have backed up the story and seem very confident about its veracity, so I’m thinking there’s a strong chance we’ll be seeing Malone as the younger Gordon come next year. Malone’s obviously been around forever, starting with CONTACT, but she’s shown a spunky, badass side in SUCKER PUNCH and HUNGER GAMES that would fit great into the DCCU, presuming that she eventually suits up as Batgirl or provides support as Oracle.
BATMAN V. SUPERMAN will probably leave the Birds of Prey out of it on March 25th, 2016.
