Nightwing Fans Are Googling Photos of Brenton Thwaites’ Butt

Nightwing fans are searching for photos of Brenton Thwaites' butt in the wake of the actor being cast as Dick Grayson on DC's Titans. Thwaites has been a rising star in Hollywood in recent years, landing the lead role in an adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver, before going on to star in both Gods of Egypt and this summer's return to Disney's swashbuckling action/adventure franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Most recently, he joined the cast of the upcoming live-action TV series based on DC Comics' Teen Titans superhero team that's expected to debut on the company's own digital service next year.

TNT was developing a Teen Titans series for some time, but elected to not pursue the project and it eventually landed back at DC, where it's been shepherded by Geoff Johns. Thwaites is the most recent actor to join Titans, with his casting as Dick Grayson being announced earlier this week. Although the reports indicated he'd be playing the character while still under the mantle of Robin, Batman's well-known sidekick, comic book fans know Dick grows out of that role and becomes the superhero known as Nightwing. And perhaps one of the most famous aspects of the Nightwing character is, well, his butt.

Related: What Brenton Thwaites May Look Like As Nightwing

As a result, Google [h/t ComicBook] has seen an uptick in searches for photos of Thwaites' butt since his casting was announced, presumably by fans wondering whether the actor's assets live up to the expectations set by the comic book character. Of course, the number of searches for Thwaites' butt are still much lower than searches for the actor himself, as evidenced by the below Google trends graphics.

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Considering how legendary Nightwing's rear end is - both in the real world and the fictional world of the DC Universe - it's not entirely surprising that fans would search for photos of Thwaites' back side to figure out what to expect from his portrayal of Dick Grayson. The DC Comics character is also a skilled acrobat, though, so the actor will no doubt be training for the role - perhaps we'll see an uptick of these search terms again when the first official image of Thwaites as Dick Grayson is released.

Still, there's no guarantee that Thwaites will actually don the costume of Nightwing on Titans, since the annoucement of his casting specified he'd still be working under the mantle of Robin. While comic book fans know that Dick Grayson eventually grows out of the Robin role and becomes Nightwing - and that would make an especially compelling coming-of-age tale for Titans to explore - it's unclear whether we'll see that play out in the series' run. Of course, for fans of Grayson's other alterego, Warner Bros. is developing a solo Nightwing movie, which already has a director attached (and may be a reason for Titans refraining from introducing Nightwing, in order to avoid confusion).

Thwaites will be joined on Titans by Teagan Croft as Raven and Anna Diop as Starfire, frontrunners for Hawk and Dove were also recently reported but the show has yet to fully cast the titular superhero team. The series is expected to begin filming this fall and debut sometime next year. By then, fans will no doubt have a better idea of whether Thwaites' butt lives up to the legend that is Nightwing's derriere.