Now that James Gunn’s Superman has hit screens, all eyes are on DC Studios, so much so that it has been found that Warner Bros once tried to make a Robin spin-off show on the back of Christopher Nolan’s Batman universe, but the director stopped it from happening.
Before Warner Bros. found James Gunn to head DC Studios, the company tried to create a Robin spin-off show that would seemingly be set in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Universe, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. This was an attempt to save its struggling comic book movie line, and because Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy had proven to be such a commercial and critical hit, it looks like Warner Bros wanted to ride that success.
However, due to there being no other superheroes in Nolan’s trilogy, a spin-off was the only option. But, according to WSJ, the director was so adamant that he be in control of all things Batman, he convinced Warner Bros. to kill the TV show. Apparently, producers were already developing the series, which is said to have been about the early life of Batman’s trusty sidekick Robin.
The spin-off would have been the most we’d see of Robin in a long while, as the once fan-favorite character has been absent from many Batman projects over the past few decades. Many different variations of the character, such as Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne, have shown up in TV shows here and there, but we never saw Robin in the DCEU.
Funnily enough, the comic book character is alluded to in Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. Bruce Wayne befriends a Gotham police officer named John Blake (real name Robin John Blake), played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Then, after Wayne 'dies' at the end of the movie, Blake inherits the Bat Cave after receiving the coordinates from Batman. This seems to be setting up a future where Robin inherits Batman's crime-fighting mantle, but nothing ever came of it. Could this be the moment that inspired Warner Bros to start developing a Robin spin-off?
We will perhaps never know what the proposed spin-off was really about or if it did follow Nolan’s trilogy. However, we don’t think we have seen the last of Robin yet. Who knows, with Matt Reeves' upcoming The Batman Part II on the way, we might finally see the best DC sidekick back on the big screen.
DC Studios' most recent project, Superman, is out in theaters now. For more, read our Superman review, and check out our guides to all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows and how to watch the DC movies in order.
