Did Robin make an appearance in "The Batman" without anybody noticing?
Well, yes…and no. Keep watching to find out how the Boy Wonder appeared
alongside Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight in "The Batman"!
After long production delays due to COVID-19, "The Batman" is finally here.
The latest story told on screen featuring one of DC Comics' most famous characters is helmed
by director Matt Reeves, previously known for his work on "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," "War for
the Planet of the Apes," and "Cloverfield." After Ben Affleck decided to step away from
playing the Caped Crusader, Reeves stepped up to tell a new Batman story with Pattinson.
"The Batman" also features a plot with the main antagonist being The Riddler played by Paul Dano,
a character we haven't seen in live-action since Cory Michael Smith played the role on "Gotham."
Before that, there was 1995's "Batman Forever" with Jim Carrey playing a highly charismatic,
obsessive, and very campy version of the classic Batman villain.
Dano's version is incredibly dark, violent, and vengeful. Although both "Batman Forever"
and "The Batman" feature The Riddler as one of their main antagonists,
there are pretty vast and obvious differences between both films. For one, there is a
massively important character missing from "The Batman" that was featured in 1995 — Robin.
Although nothing is really ever hinted about Dick Grayson or Robin during "The Batman,"
an actor who had previously played one of the Robins in live-action
appeared very early on in the movie, and you might've missed him in his big scene.
While the opening to "The Batman" starts off by introducing us to a very demented and creepy
Riddler, it isn't long before moviegoers are hit with a narration from Robert Pattinson's
Bruce Wayne. It's Halloween night and Gotham City is celebrating, but as Bruce notes, crime still
runs rampant. Gotham City Police Department Lt. James Gordon, played by Jeffrey Wright,
lights up the Bat-Signal, and we see common criminals on the streets start to get scared,
feeling fearful that somewhere nearby, Batman could be hiding in the shadows.
The film cuts to the subway where a few face-painted men are huddling
around watching a video they took of themselves assaulting someone for fun,
although the youngest in the group seems to be uncomfortable with it.
Without much dialogue, the youngest is told by the leader of the group to pursue and attack
another person on the subway with them, and as they do, they're confronted by Batman.
As seen in the first trailer for the film, Batman beats the leader
and utters an iconic line that plays an important role throughout the actual film:
"I'm vengeance."
The rest of the group — except for the young kid — proceed to attack Batman and fail. He and Batman
share a look, where the kid seems simultaneously relieved that Batman showed up and also amazed
by what he sees — and then he runs off. This kid happens to be played by actor Jay Lycurgo.
In the credits, the kid is referred to simply as "Train Gang Young Member" — but
he actually plays a character who's known as DC Comics' Robin in another project.
If you're a DC fan, you probably saw Jay Lycurgo playing Tim Drake in Season 3 of "Titans" before
his quick part in "The Batman." The HBO Max show actually centers around being Robin in general,
as the first season introduces fans to the original Robin, Dick Grayson,
who's played on the show by Brenton Thwaites. The series covers his journey to step out from
being under the shadow cast by Batman and become his own hero — Nightwing. Soon after,
we are introduced to Curran Walters' Jason Todd, and in Season 3 we are introduced to Tim Drake,
an intelligent young man who figures out on his own that Nightwing is Dick Grayson,
Robin was (prior to his death) Jason Todd, and that Bruce Wayne is Batman.
During Season 3, Lycurgo's Tim goes through quite the transformative experience,
as he is at one point shot by Scarecrow, played by Vincent Kartheiser, and nearly dies.
During the finale of Season 3, we see that Tim is accepted by the Titans and leaves with Dick
and most of the team to San Francisco and the Titans Tower once more. Lycurgo is set to return
as a recurring character in Season 4 of the show, which has already started production. It's likely
Tim's training from Dick or Bruce might be a focus in the show's plot moving forward.
It's impossible to know whether we will see Lycurgo again in possible sequels to "The Batman."
It seems unlikely that the actor would play two different Robins in two different
live-action universes. Then again, we do have three different actors set to play
three different big-screen versions of Batman in the same year, so anything's possible.
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