Warner Bros. Discovery will host secret screenings of cancelled film Batgirl at the studio for cast and crew, according to reports.

Earlier this month, the company abruptly axed the DC film after it was originally scheduled to be released on HBO Max.

It’s claimed the cancellation was due to new management at Warner Bros. Discovery, who wanted to pivot back to making DC films at a blockbuster scale. According to Variety, a tax incentive motivated the decision to shelve the project, with a tax write-down reportedly seen “as the most financially sound way to recoup the costs”.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery will host screenings of Batgirl this week for those who worked on the film, including cast, crew and executives.

The showings, described as “funeral screenings” by a source in the report, are being held before the film is locked away in a vault.

Batgirl was axed during post-production after filming concluded on the project in March. An unfinished version was shown at a single test screening in June, which was the only time members of the public saw a version of the film.

This comes after directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah claimed they could no longer access footage from the film.

“[Batgirl] cannot be released in its current state,” El Arbi told SKRIPT. “Before it’s released one day, there would be a lot of work still to do. Just like the Snyder Cut. There’s no VFX, we still had to shoot some scenes.

“So if [Warner Bros. Discovery] wanted us to release the Batgirl movie they would need to give us the means to do it, to finish it properly with our vision.”

Fallah added: “We have nothing. Adil called me and said, ‘Shoot everything on your phone.’ I went on the server, and everything was blocked.”

Following the cancellation, Batgirl actor Leslie Grace praised the “incredible cast and tireless crew”.

She added: “To every Batgirl fan – THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, ‘my own damn hero!’ Batgirl for life!”