Batman has been adapted to film numerous times over since his 1939 debut, yet his movies have consistently struggled to get Robin right. Robin has existed in Batman comics almost as long as Batman himself and is as important to the Batman mythos as Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. comics and is featured in numerous media adaptations, from animated TV shows to video games, yet the films have always struggled to properly depict the famous sidekick. Some adaptations have come close to getting Robin right while others have ignored the character outright. Understanding Robin and his importance to Batman as a character are essential to making an authentic depiction of the Dark Knight.
Dick Grayson, the first Robin, debuted in 1940, just under a year after Batman’s first adventure in Detective Comics. Dick Grayson was a young circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mobster to intimidate the circus’ owner. Bruce Wayne witnessed the “accidental” death of Grayson’s parents and adopted the young boy, revealing his superhero identity of Batman to him and training him as a protégé. As Batman’s adopted son, Dick Grayson became Robin, who carried an identical arsenal of gadgetry to Batman and whose martial arts and detective skills nearly equaled those of the Dark Knight. Not only did Bruce Wayne see himself in the orphaned Grayson, but raising a crime-fighter son helped save Batman from succumbing to the grief and rage of losing his own parents.
Although Dick Grayson is the most well-known Robin, he eventually grew to adulthood and became an independent superhero, Nightwing. Since then, the Robin costume and moniker has become a mantle, passed down to other teen protégés of the Dark Knight. Though the Bat-Family contains more heroes than just Batman and the Robins, Dick Grayson’s title was passed down to Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damien Wayne in the mainstream DC universes. In the alternate timeline featured in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Carrie Kelley succeeded Dick Grayson and Jason Todd as Robin. With such a vital and storied history in the Batman comics, it’s unfortunate that most Batman films have struggled to properly portray Robin.
Robin’s live-action debut came shortly after his first appearance in the comics. In 1943 and 1949, Robin appeared in the Batman and Batman and Robin serials, played by Douglas Croft and Johnny Duncan, respectively. Robin was famously played by Burt Ward in the 1960s Batman television series, which featured the Boy Wonder in every episode and a theatrical film that was released between the first and second seasons. Robin was intended to appear in film but was ultimately cut to keep the film from becoming overcrowded. A new version of Robin, played by Marlon Wayans, was meant to appear in Batman Returns but was similarly cut due to the cast and crew’s lack of interest in giving Batman a sidekick. Though not depicted on film, Burton’s Batman finally got a canonical Robin, Drake Winston, in the Batman ’89 comic series.
Robin’s first true cinematic debut was in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, with Chris O’Donnell playing Dick Grayson in the 1995 film and its 1997 sequel, . Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy never featured Robin in the traditional sense, but the young policeman John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) assists Batman throughout , eventually succeeding him as Gotham’s protector, where his legal first name is revealed to be Robin. The DCEU would have had two Robins if Zack Snyder had the opportunity to follow through with his plans. features the damaged Robin outfit of a deceased Dick Grayson, though Carrie Kelley would have succeeded him in Batman’s solo film and Justice League sequels.
For such an important character from the Batman comics, it’s unfortunate that Robin is so rarely included in Batman films and seldom depicted correctly. The reason for this seems to be that most filmmakers misunderstand Robin’s role in Batman’s supporting cast. Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan were vocally uninterested in including Robin in their films, feeling that Batman is more of a loner. This isn’t the case in the comics, which featured Robin and Batgirl as Batman’s partners for most of his history, characterizing Bruce Wayne as eager to take protégés under his wing, whether they’re his adopted child or simply a young potential crime-fighter. Joel Schumacher’s Batman films were well-intentioned, but Chris O’Donnell’s age in both movies made Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson’s father-son dynamic impossible to properly depict.
There were only two cinematic iterations of Batman that truly understood Robin’s role in the Batman mythos since the excellently-written Drake Winston Robin of the Tim Burton universe has only appeared in comics thus far. The 60s Batman TV series included Robin in every episode, depicting him as both Batman’s adopted son and a highly capable crime-fighter. The DCEU’s Dick Grayson was murdered by The Joker before Ben Affleck’s first Batman outing, but the franchise acknowledges Robin’s importance by having his death directly contribute to Batman’s near-turn to villainy in Dawn of Justice. Considering how accurate the DCEU is to DC’s comics, Carrie Kelley would have been the first truly authentic cinematic Robin if Zack Snyder’s planned Batman and Justice League films made it to the big screen.
Ideally, the DCEU would have continued with Ben Affleck’s Batman training Carrie Kelley as his new Robin, but with The Flash rebooting the timeline and replacing Affleck’s Batman with Michael Keaton’s there is a new opportunity to get Robin right. Set photos from imply that the DCEU Batman still raised Dick Grayson, only now he wasn’t killed by The Joker, giving the franchise a chance to depict a living Robin correctly, be it Dick Grayson or one of his successors like Jason Todd or Tim Drake. Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which exists in its own separate universe from the DCEU, will depict a new Batman during his second year as a crime fighter. While Robin most likely won’t appear in the upcoming film, he could be introduced in a sequel, which Robert Pattinson expressed interest in seeing. If future Batman movies replicate the father-son or teacher-protégé dynamic from the comics, Robin may finally be depicted correctly on film.
Next: Robert Pattinson Is Right: His Batman Should Have A Young Robin
This content was originally published here.