‘In The Heights’ Actress Leslie Grace Is Joining The DCEU As Its Resident Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl

The DCEU seems like it’s in a constant state of flux. Is Henry Cavill still Superman Will the Caped Crusader Robert Pattinson plays in The Batman be the same one who hangs out with Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and company Is the Snyderverse finitio or will its fans force Warner Bros. to give it a Mulligan (Probably not, since Zack Snyder himself says he’ll no longer work with DC.) At least there’s some certainty in its own Extended Universe: According to The Hollywood Reporter, it at least now has a Batgirl.

After a tight race, which also reportedly saw names like Haley Lu Richardson and Zoey Deutch being thrown around, the role of Barbara Gordon — daughter of Commissioner Gordon and close-ish ally of Bruce Wayne himself — has gone to Leslie Grace. You may know her: She was one of the main stars of In the Heights, playing Nina Rosario, the collegiate who’s reluctant to let her father, played by Jimmy Smits, go into debt to pay for her education. She can sing, she can dance, and now she’ll have to beat up Gotham’s worst.

Grace’s casting makes her the third Latina actress to join DC’s EU. The role of Supergirl, in the Flash solo movie, has gone to young The Young and the Restless actress Sasha Calle, while Rachel Zegler, soon to be seen as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, has an as-yet-unrevealed role in the second Shazam.

It’s not yet clear where Batgirl will fit in the other wings of the DCEU, but it’s believed that she’ll have her own standalone film, which has been in production since 2017, and which is currently planned to drop on HBO Max in far-flung 2023.