As pre-production of Warner Bros. & DC Films’s upcoming Batgirl film heats up ahead of its November shoot in Glasgow, some casting tidbits have been unveiled this week. Bad Boys for Life breakout Jacob Scipio has been cast, while J. K. Simmons has officially hopped aboard the project as Commissioner Gordon.
While details of Scipio’s role in the film are being kept under wraps, the actor hinted at an Instagram post that he will play a villain. Simmons was in talks to reprise his Justice League role by July, but wasn’t attached until now. Scipio and Simmons are starring opposite In The Heights’ Leslie Grace, who is playing titular vigilante Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl.
Back in early July, it was reported by The Illuminerdi that Batgirl was looking for an actor in his 50s-60s to play the villain, described as a disgruntled former firefighter. With that villain heavily rumored to be Firefly, and since Scipio is quite far from the 50-60 age range, it is likely he is playing another character, perhaps Firefly’s usual partner-in-crime Killer Moth (although this is purely speculation on my part.)
Warner Bros. is also looking for the supporting role of a mid-to-late 20’s Asian American transgender woman named “Alanna” and a 10-12 year old Asian American transgender actress or non-binary/gender diverse actor to play “Young Alanna” in the film. While nothing is official yet, it is heavily indicated that this is Alysia Yeoh, a character introduced during Gail Simone’s New 52 Batgirl run who is Barbara’s roommate and best friend.
Batgirl, directed by Scipio’s Bad Boys for Life’s directors Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah from a script by Birds of Prey and The Flash screenwriter Christina Hodson and produced by Cruella’s Kristin Burr, will stream exclusively on HBO Max sometime in 2022.