The Boy Wonder may have been a key part of Batman‘s comic book mythology dating back over 80 years, but Robin hasn’t really been given his due in a live-action blockbuster as of yet. Chris O’Donnell played the role in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, but he was little more than a sidekick to the Caped Crusader, although he was once set to headline his own spinoff before Joel Schumacher’s infamous dud killed the franchise for almost a decade.
Since then, the extent of Robin’s involvement on the big screen consists of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s eye-rolling reveal at the conclusion of The Dark Knight Rises, and a defaced costume on display in Ben Affleck’s Batcave. Zack Snyder’s Justice League offered some more details on Robin’s DCEU fate, though, confirming he was murdered by the Joker before the Clown Prince of Crime burned Wayne Manor to the ground.
The backstory was going to be explained in greater detail as flashbacks in Snyder’s Justice League sequels, but it doesn’t look as though we’ll be getting to see them. However, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Ben Affleck would be returning for The Flash long before it was confirmed – that Robert Pattinson is keen to establish Robin as part of The Batman‘s pocket reality and finally bring him to life in a way that does the character justice.
We’ve never seen the best of Dick Grayson in a feature film, but Titans has shown that the character can work as part of a dark and gritty universe, and Matt Reeves’ upcoming reboot looks to invoke a noir-tinged aesthetic, so there’s certainly plenty of scope to introduce a partner for Pattinson‘s Batman. It’s been almost a quarter of a century since we saw the Dynamic Duo team up in any sort of meaningful live-action capacity, too, and many fans believe that it’s long overdue.