Brendan Fraser is once again calling out the decision that kept Batgirl locked away from audiences. The Oscar winner, who played the villain Firefly in the shelved DC film, says Warner Bros’ choice to scrap the completed movie is a clear example of how Hollywood has begun to treat films as commodities, not cultural works.

Fraser spoke candidly in a new interview about the episode that stunned the industry in 2022 when Warner Bros killed Batgirl in what the studio described as a strategic shift. The film, which starred Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, had finished principal photography and was already deep into post production when the decision came down.

For Fraser, the issue has always been bigger than a single film. He says the cancellation reflected a worrying direction in the industry where studios increasingly view their projects in purely transactional terms. In his words, the Batgirl decision signalled a shift to an environment where “it is more valuable to burn it down and get the insurance” than to release a completed movie to the public.

Fraser said the cast and crew poured months of work into a project that deserved to be seen. He described the experience as a painful reminder that creative labour, no matter how dedicated, can be erased by corporate priorities disconnected from audiences and storytelling.

The cancellation instantly became one of the most controversial decisions in recent studio history. Executives positioned it as a financial and strategic move during the company’s transition under new leadership. Analysts at the time pointed to tax write off incentives and internal restructuring, which made unreleased content more profitable than attempting a full theatrical or streaming rollout.

Fraser argues that the larger concern is what this logic means for the future of filmmaking. If content becomes valuable primarily as an asset to be written off rather than a story to be shared, he says the industry risks losing its creative soul. It is a sentiment shared by many filmmakers who worry that mid budget projects and original stories have become vulnerable in an era where corporations increasingly prioritise intellectual property management and quarterly results.

Leslie Grace, the film’s lead, previously called the cancellation “disappointing” and “shocking,” noting that the cast had received strong internal support before the film was axed. Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah said they were locked out of the editing room after the decision was made and were never given an opportunity to salvage or rework the film for release.

Fraser says the experience also raised serious questions about how studios treat their own workers. Beyond actors and directors, hundreds of crew members were affected, from designers to editors to visual effects teams, many of whom learned of the cancellation through media reports. Their work, Fraser said, deserved respect and recognition, not disposal.

The Batgirl decision arrived during a turbulent period in Hollywood marked by consolidation, streaming competition and shifting audience habits. Fraser says the pressure to manage massive corporate portfolios has created a culture where studios are more inclined to treat films as inventory rather than art. In his view, Batgirl became collateral damage in a business model that views unreleased content as a financial tool.

Industry observers say the fallout from the cancellation continues to reverberate. Some executives began to reconsider mid tier superhero and genre projects, while others debated whether streamed releases had fundamentally altered how studios value finished films.

Fraser believes the controversy offered a revealing snapshot of what artists are up against. He acknowledged that the film itself became part of a larger debate about the future of Hollywood, where risk aversion has grown alongside the dominance of franchise building.

As Fraser put it, the central issue is not simply that a movie was cancelled, but what the cancellation revealed about an industry grappling with its identity. For him, Batgirl was a casualty of a system that rewards destruction over creativity and financial calculus over storytelling.

The film remains unreleased and locked away in studio archives. For Fraser and many involved, the episode stands as a cautionary tale about what Hollywood is becoming and what may be lost along the way.