By Travis Johnson
Nightwing is coming to the big screen! THR are reporting that Chris McKay, director of The Lego Batman Movie, is in talks to direct the film, making the transition from animation (he used to work on Robot Chicken back in the day, did you know that?) to live action.
So who is Nightwing? For those not raised on a steady diet of comics and cartoons, Nightwing is the superhero identity adopted by Dick Grayson, aka Batman’s sidekick, Robin, after he got too old for green shorts. There have been a number of Robins over the years – the latest is Batman’s son, Damian Wayne – but only one Nightwing. Grayson actually took over as Batman once, when everyone thought Bruce Wayne was dead, but subsequently gave up the cowl when it turned out that ol’ Bruce was simply lost in time and reinventing himself as Caveman Batman, Cowboy Batman, Pirate Batman, and so on. And that’s enough DC comics continuity for one day, before we all go cross-eyed.
So, the takeaway is: we may be getting a movie about Dick Grayson, Batman’s adopted son. That, of course, depends on how Justice League, Wonder Woman and, of course, The Batman fare. On a positive note for the latter, it was announced today that, after some dithering, Matt Reeves will indeed direct The Batman – a good sign after so much turmoil.
Really a shot in the dark here, but this kind of feels like a kind of backup plan to ensure there’s a Batman in the DCEU. Even with Matt Reeves signed on, we still have the rumours that Ben Affleck would rather not be locked into the cowl anymore, thank you very much; with this announcement, Dick Grayson is now waiting in the wings to take up the mantle should it prove necessary, allowing the identity to continue without recasting the main character (it’s hard to imagine the Keaton-Kilmer switch flying with fans these days). That’s complete supposition, but with the sheer chaos happening behind the scenes at Warner/DC these days, nothing is surprising. They could announce Bat-Mite as the next major villain and it wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow.
