New Batgirl casting marks the first transgender character in a live-action DC Comics movie
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Batgirl's latest casting addition marks another step forward when it comes to Hollywood opportunities for transgender actors.
Ivory Aquino, known for playing trans activist Cecilia Chung in the 2017 ABC miniseries When We Rise and Doctor Perez in 2019's Tales of the City, joins Batgirl as Alysia Yeoh, a bartender and best friend of Barbara Gordon, EW has learned.
Aquino's character will be the first trans role in a live-action DC Comics movie — played by a trans actress no less. We likely have HBO Max to thank for this.
Steve Zak Photography/FilmMagic; DC Comics Ivory Aquino joins 'Batgirl' as Alysia Yeoh, the first trans character in a live-action DC Comics movie.
Studios have been going up against international censors when it comes to certain films released in theaters around the globe. Beauty and the Beast, Eternals, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Rocketman are just some of the titles that were censored, banned, or released with higher audience restrictions in countries that often censor LGBTQ characters and stories. Batgirl, however, is being made for the WarnerMedia-owned HBO Max streaming platform, which makes censors less of an issue.
In the television space, Nicole Maines already played the small screen's first trans superhero, Dreamer, on DC's Supergirl.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had said during a 2020 Q&A at the New York Film Academy that an upcoming Marvel film "we're shooting right now" would feature a trans character. No other details have been revealed since then.
Aquino joins Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. the titular Batgirl; J.K. Simmons as Barbara's dad, Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon; Brendan Fraser as the comic book villain Firefly; Michael Keaton as Batman, a role he played in Tim Burton's 1989 film of the same name and its 1992 sequel; and Jacob Scipio in an undisclosed part.
Grace recently revealed a first look at herself in the Batgirl costume on social media.
Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are at the helm of Batgirl with a script by Birds of Prey's Christina Hodson.
Deadline was the first to report the news.
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