Kevin Smith critical of Warner Bros. for shelving Batgirl while planning to release The Flash

Kevin Smith called out Warner Bros. for their decision to shelve the upcoming Batgirl film while forging on with the release of the Ezra Miller film The Flash.

The Red Bank, New Jersey native, 52, made the remarks on his YouTube series Hollywood Babble-On, saying it was ‘an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina Batgirl movie,’ which stars actress Leslie Grace, 27, in the titular role.

‘I don’t give a s*** if the movie was absolute f***ing dog s*** – I guarantee you that it wasn’t,’ Smith said, adding that Batgirl filmmakers Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi had previously worked on ‘a couple of episodes of Ms. Marvel, and it was a wonderful f***ing show and they had more money to do Batgirl than they had to do an episode of Ms. Marvel and stuff.’

The studio last week said that it was not going to release Batgirl theatrically or on its streaming service HBO Max, after claiming it didn’t have the scale for a theatrical release and could impact the future of the brand. 

According to Variety, Warner Bros. might have been looking for a tax write-off on the motion picture, which would only be possible if it didn’t release the movie via any platform.

Smith said that he was skeptical of rumors that poorly-received test screenings soured studio execs to put out the movie, adding that the DC-branded content released on The CW network reflects the money allotted to the budget.

‘I love all The CW shows, but The CW shows show their budgetary constraints,’ said the director of films such as Clerks, Chasing Amy and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. ‘They said Batgirl looked too cheap because it was a $90 million movie. 

‘How do you make a cheap-looking $90 million movie? If it looked slightly better than an episode of Arrow then why couldn’t we see that?’

Smith also brought up the studio’s decision to keep moving with the release of The Flash amid multiple issues swirling around star Ezra Miller, 29, who has been accused of choking an Icelandic woman in a bar, and harassing a separate woman at her Berlin home.

Miller has also been twice arrested this year in Hawaii, once in connection with second-degree assault and another linked to disorderly conduct. On Monday, Miller was charged with felony burglary in Stamford, Vermont in connection with a May 1 incident in which he’s accused of stealing liquor from a home.

Smith said that the call to move forward with a theatrical release for the motion picture – which Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirmed earlier this month in a company earnings call – was a ‘baffling thing’ amid Miller’s legal troubles.

‘I don’t give a s*** how bad the Batgirl movie is, nobody in that movie is complicated or has anything in their real life you have to market around,’ he said. ‘In The Flash movie, we all know there’s a big problem! Flash is the Reverse-Flash in real life.’