Yesterday, it was revealed that Doom Patrol star Brandan Fraser has joined the cast of the Batgirl movie as the villain, Firefly. Now a new report has suggested that Fraser was not the first choice to play the pyromaniac antagonist as that honor seems to go to Sylvester Stallone. According to a post by Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, not only was the 75 year old action star the original choice for the role, but would have been cast in the movie had things worked out differently with Stallone.

In the post, Kit said, "Sylvester Stallone first had the offer for the part but things just didn't work out. Another key role in BATGIRL: the son of the gangster/villain, who becomes romantically linked to...well, you can take it from there."

If the role had worked out, it would not have been Stallone's first run out for DC or comic book-based movies, having recently been heard as the voice of King Shark in The Suicide Squad and also appearing briefly in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017 as Starhawk, the leader of the Ravagers faction. If you want to go even further back, then we should also remember that he took on the role of Judge Dredd in 1995, the main character from the 2000 AD comic books, although some people really prefer not to remember that movie exists.

As it stands, Stallone has no shortage of projects in the works at the moment, and for a man who recently celebrated his 75th birthday, he certainly doesn't appear to be slowing down. Stallone will appear in Samaritan next year, an adaptation of Bragi F. Schut, Marc-Oliver Frisch, and Renzo Podesta's graphic novel of the same name, and there are rumors that he will be reprising his role of Starhawk in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Stallone also announced that a fourth movie in The Expendables franchise is coming soon, and in May 2020 he revealed that a sequel to 1993's Demolition Man is in development, about which he previously said, "I think it's coming. We're working on it right now with Warner Brothers. It's looking fantastic. So, that should come out, that's going to happen." Additionally, he has also expressed an interest in directing a movie about the life of American horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, and a picture adapted from Nelson DeMille's novel The Lion's Game.

Meanwhile, whatever the reasons for Stallone not coming to an agreement to star in Batgirl, Brendan Fraser's casting in the role of Firefly brought a wave of excited surprise through the internet, as fans of the actor looked forward to another high-profile appearance and also found the news somewhat intriguing considering he is still an active member of the HBO Max series Doom Patrol, which while not directly linked to the DC Extended Universe does feature characters that have often crossed over into other universes on a number of occasions. Given Sylvester Stallone's recent take on King Shark, he would have caused a similar feeling had he taken on the role.

A movie version of Batgirl has been in active development since around 2017, when Joss Whedon was signed on to write and direct the movie after he took over the Justice League from Zack Snyder. When Whedon dropped off the project the following year, development of the script passed to Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson, and after she was tied up for two years writing The Flash's movie screenplay, Warner Bros. turned writing duties over to Bad Boys For Life scribes Adil El Arbi and Billall Fallah in May this year. The role of Batgirl was given to Leslie Grace over the summer, while it was also confirmed that J.K. Simmons was in talks to reprise his Justice League role of Commissioner Gordon.

Batgirl is expected to arrive on HBO Max sometime in late 2022. This news originated at ScreenRant.