Even a couple of weeks after the cancelation of the HBO MaxBatgirlmovie, the effects are still being felt pretty strongly by many who were excited for the project as well as those who were involved. The scrapping of the film really seemed to come out of nowhere, and it can be pretty tough to recover from being blindsided so strongly like that.
Aside from others in the industry, like directorKevin Smith voicing his thoughts on theBatgirlcancelation, there are still effects being felt by those who directly took part in the movie’s production. One such person is composer Natalie Holt, who had actually made substantial progress on her soundtrack for the project by the time the unfortunate news came down. She recently spoke about the whole ordeal, expressing some disappointment at how things went down.
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“I had written about an hour and a half of music,” Holt said when asked by Discussing Film about her work onBatgirl. “I’ve been working on it for a year. So yeah, pretty sad what’s happened to it.” Holt has become rather prolific in the industry over recent years, serving as the composer for huge productions likeLokiandevenObi-Wan Kenobi, so it’s not like this was the only big project she’d been working on. Though it turns out that her work on those shows may have contributed to being hired forBatgirl.
“I was on set last Christmas, [directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah] really lovedLokiand that’s why I got picked to do the score forBatgirl,” Holt continued. “So it’s a shame that it’s not going to be out there in the world after all that time, like having spent a year working on it. Yeah, pretty disappointing.” It definitely sounds like there’s a lot of missed potential going away withthe cancelation ofBatgirl, now including what was sure to be another banger of a soundtrack from Holt. But she still seems to find joy in her other musical accomplishments.
One such milestone was actually getting to work with film score legendJohn Williams onObi-Wan Kenobi. Apparently, it differed a bit from her Emmy-nominated work onLoki, and not just in the sound. “Well, it was very different fromLokibecause there’s obviously much more of a house style with Lucasfilm andStar Wars,” Holt said about her experience with the series. “It’s got a very big sound that John Williams has created that is associated with some of the characters in the show. So it felt like I had to be sensitive to that and be respectful to the history, and then also bring some new ideas that felt like they would blend in. It was amazing to get to work with John Williams – he’s one of my heroes.”
So as unfortunate asBatgirl’s untimely cancelationwas, and continues to be, it’s uplifting to see Holt’s optimistic view of the bigger picture. Earning several nominations, including a World Soundtrack Award for Best TV Soundtrack composer (for her work with Williams), she’s clearly got plenty more in the tank, and it will be exciting to see where she goes from here.
