Batman is front and center in fans’ minds as DC Studios moves forward with plans to bring the Dark Detective into the newly established shared-world DCU. Studio head James Gunn has been vocal about plans for a Batman and Robin team-up, but with those plans “in flux,” here is how it might pan out.
“The Brave and the Bold” teaser image, art by Frank Quietly from the comic book series “Batman and Robin”
Source: DC
Batman And Robin And Robin?
The question of how to adapt Robin into the modern DC movies is much debated, and is now on everyone’s minds as we await the newly minted DCU’s version of Batman and, at long last, Robin. But which Robin? And which Batman movie? Heck, which Batman franchise?
The answers to those questions are complicated, and at present the answer is “nobody is sure, except James Gunn and the people writing the scripts.” And even they might not be 100% certain, with plans still evolving, a corporate buyout on the horizon, and no way of knowing with certainty what the new owners will do, unfortunately.
But this presents scenarios where the DCU Batman can in fact be generally conceived and written out in a way that works no matter the corporate merger outcome, and regardless of whether the DCU chooses to create a brand new Batman on screen or rely on their existing proven blockbuster Batman. Or a bit of both, even.
Hear me out on a rather simple way Batman’s sidekick Robin can be portrayed to work without seeming silly or breaking the sense of grounding for the main characters (even in an otherwise supernatural world).
Dick Grayson could be taken in by Bruce, but then Dick also incorporates the Tim Drake arc of discovering who Batman is (proving he’s a good detective). If Dick insists on training as part of the “support staff” for Batman, he could do reconnaissance and go in as a kid to public places to spy and record things, because he wants to be a costumed crime-fighter eventually. Even let him save Batman and prove he can be trusted to handle himself if he gets caught in a bind.
If Damian shows up when Dick leaves at the time he turns 18 years old and sets off to college (to study crime and law), before he leaves Dick might warn Batman that Damian is dangerous and too big of a risk. He’d ask Bruce not to try to replace him, and this whole situation could cause a rift between them, with Dick not approving of Bruce putting Damian in dangerous situations that could either get Damian killed or, more likely, lead to Damian murdering someone else.
So if and when Damian winds up killing someone, then Bruce’s anger and rejection of him (this is where he might even say something indicating that deep down, Bruce feels like Dick is his only true son) might send Damian over the edge in both rage and a deep need to prove himself to Bruce or to do something to prove he doesn’t “need” Bruce. The gist of it is, he could go after the Joker alone and this could be when Damian gets killed like Jason Todd.
Condense it down to two Robins for the arc, and in the end Dick is Bruce’s true “son” and returns to comfort him after Damian dies. Dick and Bruce could reconcile. That’s an arc that can play out in two or three films, or add more if Damian lasts longer in the role of Robin while Dick takes on the mantle of Nightwing.
If it’s a brand new Batman in the DCU, then Dick’s backstory could be told in the first film The Brave and the Bold, and then continue into a sequel that introduces Damian, so a third film completes a trilogy and either establishes Damian as a longterm Robin or kills him off and has Bruce reconcile with Dick.
‘The Batman’ And Robin
But this sort of Dick and Damian arc would also, just hypothetically and conveniently, let The Batman franchise do a story around Dick Grayson for one or two films, and then The Brave and the Bold can cast the same actors as Bruce and Dick in a film that involves Batman having Damian brought into his life and Dick feeling it’s a mistake. And it works even if The Batman trilogy itself remains technically “Elseworld.”
If The Batman franchise finishes by introducing Dick, then the DCU continues that with a two- or three-film arc. But if The Batman uses two films to establish Dick as Robin, then The Brave and the Bold can jump straight into Dick’s departure and Damian’s arrival. So the concept works either way, and threading the needle perfectly would be if The Batman: Part II doesn’t have Dick in it, so that the question of whether to use a new Batman in the DCU or merge franchises can be left open til after a buyout.
Whether they also have Damian die as an adaptation of Jason Todd’s arc or not, this general set up would work for a soft pseudo-merger to keep the same cast for the DCU, but tweak Gotham and lean into horror and supernatural stories, as well as put the characters in a bit more comic-faithful costumes.
My feeling is that an arc in which Damian dies also sets up a perfect reason for Talia and Ra’s to revive him in a Lazarus Pit, and for him to return as the Red Hood in a future film. I know fans would be furious at turning Jason Todd’s arc into Damian’s, and to lose Damian’s own arcs, in terms of the comic stories.
But there are low odds of being able to incorporate the stories of at least four different Robins across multiple teenage years into adulthood in a live-action Batman franchise without taking multiple decades and retreading certain themes and subtext and even plotting at times, to really do each story the way fans want. And if you aren’t going to bother doing justice to at least one main plotline, then what’s even the point anyway, just to check the boxes of “adapting all the Robins?”
Damian’s resurrection as the Red Hood could set up a scenario where, if Batman “dies” or vanishes at some point, then Dick could take over as Batman and Damian could team up with him as Red Hood or go back to the Robin persona but mix the two into… yes, Red Robin. This sets up at least one film where you get Dick and Damian teamed up and tie all the Robins together thematically, and we can see how Damian works best with Dick as his partner, rather than with his father (Bruce) as his partner.
Combining the best elements of a few characters into the two primary characters Dick and Damian, to best focus in on the dynamics of this duo with Bruce and represent the father-son and brother-brother aspects of the relationships.
In a situation where this played out with The Batman and DCU both, notice that The Batman franchise can still ignore the DCU and do everything its own way, and then the DCU could pick up afterward and even further in the future, using the same main bat-cast, without ever explicitly referencing The Batman events as literal canon. It continues with same actors and characters, but they can either be strongly linked to the solo franchise as backstory, or just let audiences vaguely rely on it as backstory but keep it lose like the rest of the DCU so far, or use new costumes and a slightly different Gotham because it’s a multiverse and these are the versions of Batman and Robin for the DCU.
I wrote a companion piece here that dives into why Robert Pattinson and some of The Batman cast could carry over to the DCU in different ways, with more detail and addressing various concerns, so be sure to read that as well. Suffice to say, by lining things up in the right way, we could get Matt Reeves’ The Batman with Dick Grayson, in a standalone trilogy, and then continue that story when Damian arrives in the DCU, in ways that establish whatever type of connection and continuity – or not – the studio prefers.