If anything, today may wind up going down as a day that contained some of the biggest revelations regarding Zack Snyder’s original vision for a shared DC on film universe. Like you, I’m still reeling after receiving confirmation that the Robin costume seen in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice did, in fact, belong to Dick Grayson.
On the one hand, I can understand the director’s motivation for going this route because, after all, the average moviegoer has no idea who Jason Todd is. However, if you were to tell them that Dick was beaten silly with a crowbar by the Joker, then they might express more shock.
But on the other, this creative decision is incredibly stupid because it could’ve eliminated the possibility of ever seeing Mr. Grayson adopt the Nightwing persona in a movie, something that’s incredibly overdue. Fortunately, the deceased Boy Wonder’s identity has never been spoken of in any flick, so hope remains.
Tying into this is another response that Snyder gave to a fan over on Vero, letting us know that not even a possible Flashpoint event would’ve brought Dick back from the dead, and that he intended on introducing Carrie Kelley as the next Robin – eventually.
For those unfamiliar, Carrie first appeared in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns back in the 1980’s, before moving on to other identities such as Catgirl, Batman (yep), Batgirl and, finally, Batwoman in the sequels to follow. Had she materialized on the big screen under Snyder’s watch, it wouldn’t have come as much of a surprise due to DKR‘s considerable influence over BvS.
Now, this doesn’t mean Ms. Kelley won’t appear in some other picture in the future, but I do hope that Hollywood checks off the Nightwing box before introducing any other Robins. Call me crazy, but there’s a natural succession that needs to play out, at least in my view.