Holy Bat Dad! New Batman Movie Reboot Will Feature Robin As Bruce’s Son

Get ready for a whole new kind of Batman movie. As revealed by James Gunn — AKA the guy who directed Guardians of the Galaxy and is now overseeing all film, television, and animation projects at DC — the entire DC movie and TV landscape is about to change. And, perhaps the most surprising new project in this lineup is a film called The Brave and the Bold, a Batman movie in which Bruce Wayne will team up with Robin. But this time, there’s a twist, Robin is his son

On January 31, 2023, James Gunn announced and clarified several new projects in the newly revamped vision for DC; the comic book universe that is home to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and more. Going forward, most of these projects will simply be called the “DCU,” rather than the cumbersome, and unofficial term, “DCEU.” Further, the continuity of the Robert Pattison Batman series will be separate from the new Brave and the Bold Bats, and don’t even worry about how Ben Affleck fits in because he doesn’t.

According to Gunn, The Brave and the Bold will feature the character of Damien Wayne as Robin, the son of Bruce Wayne. “It's a very strange sort of father-son story about the two of them,” Gunn said. “[He] is Batman’s actual son, who [Batman] didn’t know existed for the first eight to ten years of his life,” Gunn said. “He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He’s a little son of a b*tch. He’s my favorite Robin.”

For those keeping Bat-score, there hasn’t been a big screen Robin since the 1990s, when Chris O'Donnell played Robin/Dick Grayson in Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997). Prior to that, Burt Ward, of course, played Robin in the 1966 Batman movie and the famous biff-pow TV series of that era. In 2013, Joseph Gordon-Levitt played a Gotham city cop named John Blake, who, at the end of the film was teased as a new Robin, but we never actually saw that happen. In the more recent movies, Batman Vs. Superman and Justice League, Ben Affleck’s Batman has already suffered the loss of a Robin at the hands of the Joker, referencing the famous 1988 comic book storyline “Death in the Family,” in which a different Robin, Jason Todd, was also killed by the Joker.

The upcoming Brave and the Bold film, inspired by the Grant Morrison comics, shares its name with a 2008 animated series of the same name. The character of Damien Wayne as Robin derives from both 1987, and 2006 comic book series. And, because of these connections and influences, there’s every reason to believe that this Batman movie will be a bit lighter in tone than what we’ve been used to in the past few decades.

Who is playing Batman and Robin in The Brave and the Bold?

As of now, casting for the new Batman and Robin have not been announced.

When does the Brave and the Bold Batman reboot hit theaters?

No release date has been set by DC or Warner Bros at this time. But that could change soon!