Batgirl may have met her greatest nemesis: The Accountant.

Variety is reporting that a possible reason that Warner Bros. has permanently shelved Batgirl, with no plans to release it theatrically or via its streaming platform HBO Max, is so that the studio can write off the $90 million it has spent so far on the project, which was reportedly near completion.

According to Variety‘s analysis, Batgirl was made under a different regime at Warner Bros., headed by Jason Kilar and Ann Sarnoff, that was singularly focused on building its streaming service. Kilar is the one who made the decision to release the studio’s entire 2021 theatrical slate simultaneously on HBO Max, which did help to build the subscriber base but also made top-tier talent leery of doing deals with the studio. (Most, if not all, stars were placated when the studio paid them a compensatory amount for what they lost at the box office.)

Now that Warner Bros. has merged with Discovery, though, CEO David Zaslav, who recently assumed leadership over the combined Warner Bros. Discovery entity, is more inclined to listen to the wishes of the creatives in the WB/Discovery stable, and is intent on reversing the decision to have same-day streaming of the blockbusters.

Batgirl, with its $90M price tag, is thus too pricy to fit on a menu of now less showy streaming releases, yet not big enough to be a major theatrical release. The studio would have to reshoot or otherwise rework the film, increasing the budget, and also factor in the cost of marketing the film domestically – somewhere between $30-50 million dollars.

Writing the film off as a tax loss means the studio can recoup some or all of what they have spent so far without having to spend another dime on the project. However, this means that they cannot in anyway monetize the film, thus no HBO Max premiere and no selling it to another studio.

Leslie Grace was cast as Batman/Barbara Gordon, and the movie would have featured the return of Michael Keaton as Batman after playing the character in two Tim Burton films, Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Brendan Fraser was cast as the villain Firefly and J.K. Simmons was to play Commissioner Gordon.

In addition to Batgirl, the studio has also canned Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, a planned sequel to the animated movie Scoob!