Matt Reeves says The Batman 2 could feature Robin though will only explore the character if he can develop emotional stakes for his story. The Planet of the Apes reboot director is ushering in a new cinematic universe surrounding the DC Comics vigilante after taking the reins from the DC Extended Universe's Ben Affleck. The new franchise begins with The Batman, which picks up with Bruce Wayne in his second year of fighting crime in Gotham as he contends with serial killer The Riddler and a deep web of corruption.
Reeves had begun plans for a larger universe prior to The Batman's release including a trilogy and two spin-off TV shows for HBO Max, one centered on Colin Farrell's The Penguin and one centered on the Gotham City Police Department. The latter project has since been put on hold and evolved into a spin-off series exploring his universe's take on Arkham Asylum. While Reeves seems to have plenty of ideas for the future of The Batman, there's one character he's unsure about cracking.
While appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast for the film's release, Matt Reeves opened up about the future for his Batman franchise. When asked whether the Caped Crusader's sidekick would appear at some point, Reeves said The Batman 2 could feature Robin if the co-writer/director can figure a story for the character with proper emotional stakes. See what Reeves shared below:
"Maybe. We'll just say maybe. I don't know. Here's the thing, I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do. I'm not sure what the next story is. For me, whatever that story's going to be, it's going to be to take these characters — and specifically Batman's character — and put them in some kind of emotional jeopardy. So when you talk about what you're talking about, there may be a really interesting story. There'd have to be emotional stakes to get drawn into that character's story.
I don't want that character to become a cypher. I don't want to be like, 'Okay, so we saw it wasn't an origin tale, but you know what, that was kind of [Batman's] origins and now he's just perfect.' No, you need to test the character again and again and again. And for me, yeah, there might be something in that. I don't know. There's a deep-dive that already happened at the beginning and now I'm gonna have to deep-dive again if we have the chance to make another one and so we shall see."
After appearing in a couple of serials in the '40s, Robin would make his proper big-screen debut with Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever in which Chris O'Donnell portrayed the Dick Grayson incarnation of the character as he's taken in by Bruce Wayne following the death of his circus performer parents at the hands of Two-Face. O'Donnell would carry the role through the George Clooney-led sequel, Batman & Robin, and was set to lead a spin-off film that was cancelled due to the poor reception of the fourth film. The years since have only seen homages or references to Robin, with the character having been killed by the Joker and Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe as revealed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake revealing his legal first name to be Robin at the end of The Dark Knight Rises.
As Reeves explains in the interview, while The Batman 2 could feature Robin, he would need a proper story angle with emotional stakes to properly fit into his new DC universe. Given the co-writer/director elected to slightly skip past Wayne's origin story and takes an appropriately bleak approach to exploring Batman's detective skills, introducing Robin to Reeves' franchise may be better saved for a later sequel or spin-off series than immediately bringing him in for The Batman 2. While audiences wait for more details on the next film, they can catch up with The Batman now in theaters.
Source: Happy Sad Confused
