Joss Whedon, creator of TV shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly as well as writer and director of Marvel blockbusters Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is bowing out of DC Entertainment’s Batgirl movie. Whedon told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement:

“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”

Other sources claim that Whedon could not ‘crack the code’ of a Batgirl movie. Others have suggested that given the cultural environment Whedon would have undergone more scrutiny from the public than he ordinarily would have.

Toruk’s Take

First. I don’t believe the notion that he couldn’t come up wth a storyline for a nano-second. Whedon probably had a dozen different ideas about what he could do with the character. I do think that he came to the conclusion that no matter what he came up with he and the movie were going to be dumped on, and I think he’s right. Whedon has fallen out of favor with a lot of geeks over the years for a myriad of reasons. Some think he is a hyprocrite because of his earlier stances as a ‘male feminist’ while others simply didn’t like his writing style or the way he has handled criticism.  To this day I love Buffy, Angel and Firefly and I always will. I try not to know too much about the personal lives of people’s work I enjoy because it can spoil it. I don’t like some of the things I’ve heard about Whedon in this regard but I would have given his Batgirl movie a fair shake. I think it’s a shame because this is the kind of project that would be right up his alley.

It might be for the best though. The hatred for DC is unbelievably strong (so much so that I find myself wanting to root for them) and things would have likely gone south no matter the quality. I think the best thing for Whedon to do is focus on his own universe. I think if he’s smart he’ll go back to building that up and see how far he can go with it.