The Batman’s release in 2022 brought a new and interesting take on the character to the mainstream. This Bruce Wayne has only been on the crime-fighting scene for two years at the start of the movie. In this film, Bruce Wayne is young. Bruce is weird, the cops are going so far as to call him a freak. It shows us that Bruce Wayne was not always the hyper-competent and respected Bat modern media makes him out to be. At one point, Bruce was an awkward and sad 26-year-old who never showered and ruined the floors of the manor. And the girlies ate it up.
Tumblr especially took a shine to him, gifting him with such honorifics as ‘sadboy’ and ‘my poor little meow meow.’ You know when a character kind of always gives you the impression that they’re wet? That’s Robert Pattinson’s Batman. He’s still extremely smart, he still lays goons out flat, and he still solves the mystery, but under the cowl, he’s just a guy. He’s a guy who needs to put on sunglasses indoors because the sun is too bright. He’s a guy who has frankly never washed his hair. He’s a guy who was in high school when My Chemical Romance released “Welcome To The Black Parade,” and it shows.
So what is the best thing to do with such a man? Give him a bright, sunshiny chaos child to run around in primary colors. Obviously.
The Batman needs a Robin
The timeline fits! Bruce Wayne adopts Dick Grayson at around 26 in the comics, so in The Batman - Part II (set to be released in 2027), if it takes place soon after the first one, the timeline would match up. Alfred already referenced his ‘time with the circus’ in the first film. Bruce should absolutely go to that circus and find that boy. He needs him. They need each other.
I mean, think about it: Battinson’s Bruce Wayne gives this energy of “please, no one look at me; I must not be perceived at any cost,” right? So who better to pull focus than Dick “needs everyone’s attention all the time” Grayson? Dick is the one with all the charisma. He can be a beacon of hope in Gotham’s darkness. He can also redirect attention away from Bruce if they get recognized as celebrities in public. Dick can tell the waiter Bruce asked for no pickles when they get his order wrong. It’s so perfect.
And, of course, we have Bruce being a guardian to Dick. The Batman’s Bruce Wayne is the youngest Caped Crusader we’ve had on-screen in the movies so far. A 26-year-old parenting an 8-year-old is already amazing, but factoring in that he’s an emo-millennial? It’s a gold mine. We could have Bruce still being emotionally repressed but cranking Nirvana about it instead of getting angry at his child. Bruce having Selina and her million stray cats as a role model to know how to behave with something - or someone - in your care. Bruce really respecting Dick and treating him as a true partner because we have never seen a more humble Batman than Battinson.
The people crave Robins. We want Batfamily. We want the Bat and his birds. And DC is answering with the new animated project, Dynamic Duo, and, of course, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. But we need more than that: We need Robin in the mainstream. In live-action, so my parents will watch it. The world needs to see Batman and Robin back on the big screen.
We need to give Battinson his Robin.