The secret Batgirl music video Warner Bros doesn’t want you to see

Dear readers, today we’re doing something rare: your fourth read of the week is by the same writer as yesterday. Malcolm Jack’s piece on the past and future of the abandoned Botanics railway station led him in all sorts of unexpected directions. The most interesting was when he caught wind of a secret music video shot on the set of Batgirl in 2021. Allegedly arranged clandestinely by a production member, and very much off the books, Malcolm’s scoop reveals that this music video contains the only publicly-available footage of the Batgirl set anywhere — the film was controversially axed before release. Who knew a minor Hollywood drama would take place beneath the Botanics?

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Batgirl: have we found an illicit music video that gives a rare peek into the cancelled blockbuster?

By Malcolm Jack

In 2022, Warner Brothers transformed Glasgow’s abandoned Botanic Gardens railway station and tunnels into an underground Gotham City shanty town, complete with wrecked cars, ramshackle buildings, heaps of rubbish and even a broken-down New York style subway carriage. The film was Batgirl, a $90 million superhero blockbuster that was controversially cancelled before release. 

But it turns out footage of the set was publicly available this whole time — on the YouTube channel of a little known American singer, who secretly recorded a music video there.

The video for ‘Fucked Up W You’ by Mercy Rae, an American alt-pop singer and actress, was uploaded to YouTube in 2024. It shows Rae writhing around in a white bustier, underwear and slashed stockings, at one point splashing in a filthy puddle against a dark, gritty underground backdrop. Its description reads: “Welcome to my dystopian cyberpunk future.” At time of writing, it has just over 400 views.