Brendan Fraser will play the villain in Batgirl movie

Brendan Fraser will play the villain in Batgirl.

The George of the Jungle actor has been cast as Firefly, a pyrotechnic-loving sociopath in the upcoming DC venture, though specific details about the plot of the movie — which will premiere directly on HBO Max next year — remain under wraps.

Christina Hodson has written the script and Kristin Burr is set to produce.

Leslie Grace will star in the film as the titular character Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon.

A number of characters have played the superhero in the Batman universe but Gordon is the most prominent even though the character debuted in the comics as Betty Kane in 1961.

Onscreen, Batgirl was played by Yvonne Craig in the 1960s TV series while Alicia Silverstone portrayed the character in the 1997 movie Batman & Robin, although she was butler Alfred Pennyworth's niece in that project.

DC Films chief Walter Hamada previously suggested that the movie was being released via the streaming service as Batgirl is a "riskier character" and could mean that the movie flops at the box office.

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He also explained that the studio is looking to create HBO TV spinoffs for all of their upcoming films as it helps to explain projects that don't share continuity with other movies.

Hamada said: "With every movie that we're looking at now, we are thinking, 'What's the potential Max spinoff?' I don't think anyone else has ever attempted this. But audiences are sophisticated enough to understand it. If we make good movies, they will go with it."

The project marks a career resurgence for Brendan, who currently voices a character on HBO Max's superhero show Doom Patrol.

He recently landed a role in Darren Aronofsky's adaptation of Samuel D Hunter's play The Whale, which is about an obese recluse, and he will also be seen alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.