Titans star Brenton Thwaites, who portrays Nightwing in the HBO Max series, is game to be part of James Gunn's DC Universe. The DCU (formerly known as the DCEU) is going in a new direction under the management of Gunn and Peter Safran, who is serving as the new co-CEOs for DC Studios. Launched on November 1 to replace DC Films, following the departure of Walter Hamada, Gunn and Safran oversee DCU television, movies, and animation. The two bosses are currently mapping out a 10-year-long plan for the franchise, which is expected to be presented to Warner Bros. Discovery soon.
In a new interview with SFX Magazine (via CBR,) Thwaites, who plays Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Nightwing on Titans, was asked if he would ever be interested in bringing his character to the big screen as part of the DCU. The Australian actor admitted that he has always thought about it and would love to play Nightwing in the DCU if given a chance. While acknowledging that "things at Warner Bros. are changing" quickly, he would be honored to be part of Gunn's DCU and play Nightwing in the movies. With the right resources behind it, Thwaites believes there could be an excellent approach to doing Nightwing in the DCU, sharing the following:
"I have thought about that. I would love to do that. It’s not up to me, it’s up to Warner Bros. Things at Warner Bros are changing quite drastically. Their next slate of films could be really exciting. We just have to wait and see. It would be a great honour to bring Nightwing to the big screen. If we were to do that, and if there was a bit of money behind a film version of Nightwing, it would be one of the greatest superhero stories out there."
How Titans' Nightwing Could Appear In The DCU
With the way that the Titans TV show has been established since season 1, the DC TV series doesn't take place in the main DCU continuity but rather in the larger DC live-action Multiverse. During the big Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the five-part event revealed that Titans exist on Earth-9. In the DCU, at least as presented through Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder has stated that the Robin that Joker and Harley Quinn got killed was intended to be none other than Dick himself. Had Snyder's original vision for the DCU continued, Robin's death would have eventually been explored in future films.
However, since Snyder is no longer involved with the DCU, including its future under Gunn and Safran's DC Studios era, the question is whether Titans' Nightwing could appear in the movies. Technically, the Earth-9 iteration couldn't show up unless they were to do a Multiverse arc where Thwaites' Nightwing crossed over from his Earth to the DCU. However, if Gunn and Safran wanted to use the actor at least, they could have Thwaites play Earth-DCU's Nightwing. Essentially, Thwaites would be playing a doppelganger who would have a different history than the iteration of Nightwing on Titans.
With Thwaites' Nightwing being a popular version of the DC vigilante, seeing him getting to play at least a variation of Dick in the DCU would be fun, even if it's not based on the character he plays on Titans. Obviously, it would be hard to make it happen while the TV show is still going on HBO Max. Unless Titans somehow, through some Multiverse-game-changing story, were to become canon to the DCU, Thwaites appearing in the movies as a new Nightwing would likely work better whenever the series ends its run. Time will tell if HBO Max will renew Titans for season 5 in 2023, but if the DCU were to get Thwaites' Nightwing in any capacity, it would be intriguing to see how he meshes with the film universe.
Source: SFX Magazine (via CBR)
