Set photos of Robin from the upcoming DCEU film Batgirl hint that Michael Keaton’s Batman won’t be the same version of the Dark Knight seen in the Tim Burton films, despite being played by Keaton. 2022’s The Flash will see Keaton return to the role as the same Batman who helped form the modern superhero blockbuster film in 1989, and the film appears to also be ushering in a continuity reboot for the DCEU, leaving some parts unchanged but changing others. Keaton will replace Ben Affleck as the franchise’s Batman, but he might be playing an all-new version of the Dark Knight, mixing elements from Burton’s films, the old DCEU, and the comics.
Batman never had a sidekick in 1989’s Batman or Batman Returns, despite both films including plans of introducing the character during development. The ongoing Batman ’89 comics, which are canonical continuations of Burton’s continuity, finally gave Batman his famous sidekick through an original character, Drake Winston, who is based on a proposed reimagined version of Robin for Batman Returns, who’d have been played by Marlon Wayans. In the DCEU’s original timeline, Ben Affleck’s Batman trained his adopted son, Dick Grayson, as Robin, who would later die at the hands of The Joker. Unrealized DCEU plans by Zack Snyder would have had Carrie Kelley succeed Dick Grayson as Robin.
Several set photos from Batgirl reference Robin in a different context from the Tim Burton films and the pre-The Flash DCEU. This includes a mural depicting Keaton’s Batman alongside a version of Robin who resembles Dick Grayson from the DC Comics universe, as well as a magazine referencing Grayson’s near-recruitment by the nefarious Court of Owls. The mural depicts Robin quite differently from the Tim Burton universe’s Drake Winston, and the magazine cover implies that Grayson is still alive, changing the lore from previous DCEU films. What this could mean is that either Burton’s Batman trained and fought crime alongside Dick Grayson sometime after Drake Winston, or this is a new iteration of Batman from the Tim Burton movies.
Batman had multiple people fill the role of Robin, with each eventually leaving the role and becoming an independent hero in Gotham as they got older. Dick Grayson became Nightwing upon reaching adulthood, and his successors gradually formed Batman’s “Bat-Family” or crime fighters. If Keaton is playing the same version of Batman in Batgirl that he did in the Burton films, he might have trained Dick Grayson as Robin sometime after Winston left the role. In this case, Grayson might have already become Nightwing by the events of Batgirl, allowing him to work alongside Barbara Gordon.
Another possibility is that the Batman that Keaton will play in Batgirl won’t be the same character he played in Burton’s films. If this is the case, he likely never trained any version of Drake Winston as Robin, adopting Dick Grayson and training him as Robin instead, as he did in the comics. The Flash will likely change the DCEU, but it also may blend it with elements of the Tim Burton universe, as evidenced by Keaton’s outfit as Batman as seen in the mural, though this might make Keaton’s Batman a hybrid of the Burton and Affleck version, in terms of characterization.
If Keaton is playing a new version of Batman that mixes elements of the Tim Burton and Ben Affleck iterations, his history as shown in Burton’s classic movies may still be canonical in the broad strokes. This would be similar to the Joel Schumacher version of Batman (Earth-97), which picks up where an alternate version of Batman and Batman Returns left off. Michael Keaton’s Batman in Batgirl could have a backstory that combines that Tim Burton films with the prior DCEU installments, in addition to sparing Dick Grayson’s Robin from his tragic demise.
