Batgirl Co-Director Teases A 'Delicious Spaghetti' Of Multiverses
Between Marvel Studios and the rapidly-evolving DC universe and, uh, whatever Sony has going on in its little corner of the comic book scene, the multiverse arms race is well and truly upon us. It all began with the brilliant "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," and since now the live-action superhero movies have been trying to recapture that magic with whatever characters are at their disposal: Sony with its trio of Spider-Men, Marvel Studios with all those various cameos in "Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness," and Warner Bros. with its continued efforts to build out a full-fledged DC movie universe that will now rope in decades of past continuity.
If that all sounds slightly overwhelming to the casual moviegoer, it probably is! But it hasn't taken very long at all for studios to figure out that popular superheroes + the nostalgia of beloved actors reprising their old comic book movie roles = $$$. In other words, the multiverse isn't going anywhere anytime soon, folks.
Other than the upcoming (and endlessly beleaguered) production of "The Flash," one of the next times we'll see this concept in action (possibly on the big screen, contrary to earlier reports?) will be "Batgirl." Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah ("Bad Boys for Life," "Ms. Marvel"), the filmmaking pair certainly have their hands full ... but that's nothing compared to the "delicious spaghetti" of multiverse hijinks waiting in store for fans of the beloved DC hero.
'You're gonna have to see the other movies to understand what happens'
As veterans of Marvel Studios' normal mode of operation, the directors (who commonly go by the moniker of Adil and Bilall) are well familiar with the trappings and complications inherent with interconnected storytelling. "Ms. Marvel" didn't necessarily include any multiverse-related shenanigans (unless you count the talk of different dimensions), but it proved to be a necessary crash course in blockbuster filmmaking all the same. Alluding to their experiences with Kevin Feige, who would repeatedly tell them not to worry about understanding how their project fit into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, co-director Adil El Arbi explained how similar the process was with WB/DC in an interview with The Direct:
"Well you know, we'd sort of give the same answer, because we would also ask, 'Oh, you have J.K. Simmons from the Snyderverse and we got Michael Keaton from the Burton-verse. What's the situation there?' And they would say, 'Don't worry about it. We got a plan.' They never really explained that aspect to us, but I guess you're gonna have to see the other movies to understand what happens, why the reason is that we ended up in sort of a spaghetti of Multiverses in that aspect. It's gonna be a delicious spaghetti, I'm sure of that."
Depending on your level of investment, that comment about needing to watch the other DC films either sounds like a promise or a threat. Either way, it'd difficult to envision studios putting the genie back in the bottle now that audiences have been conditioned to watch every Marvel movie (and show!) simply to keep track of the ongoing storyline. We'll see if this pays off for DC when "Batgirl" arrives at a to-be-announced date.