J.K. Simmons opens up about 'bizarre' decision to shelve Batgirl

J.K. Simmons has opened up about the "bizarre" decision to shelve his movie Batgirl.

The Whiplash actor made his debut as Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon in 2017's Justice League and reprised the role in Batgirl, in which Leslie Grace plays his daughter, Barbara Gordon / Batgirl.

However, in 2022, Warner Bros. executives ultimately decided not to release the film, even though it was almost complete.

Simmons reflected on the situation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, saying, "It's bizarre. Apparently, one test audience saw it, and you know, it wasn't like it was a bad score from the test audience. It was a whatever business decision obviously."

"When Batgirl came along with (directors) Adil (El Arbi) and Bilall (Fallah), it was an exciting prospect to be part of the origin story of Batgirl," he continued. "For those who don't know, (she is) Commissioner Gordon's daughter. Maybe we'll never know, the worldwide audience."

Simmons, who has never seen the finished superhero film, hasn't let the decision ruin his memories of making it between November 2021 and March 2022.

"We really had a good time making it and thought it was going to be a fun superhero movie. Oh well," he added.

In addition to Simmons and Grace, Batgirl also starred Brendan Fraser as the supervillain Ted Carson / Firefly and featured Michael Keaton's return as Bruce Wayne/Batman after 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns.

Warner Bros. executives also shelved the release of Scoob!: Holiday Haunt and Coyote vs. Acme, however, the latter has found a new distributor and will finally be released in cinemas next month.