2022’s The Batman unknowingly made way for a future Robin. Matt Reeves’ version of the Caped Crusader took the superhero world by storm last year. Starring a fresh face, Robert Pattinson in the lead character, and a plotline disconnected from the DCEU, The Batman made a huge splash at the box office grossing $752 million worldwide, per Forbes.
The immense success of the film simultaneously encouraged deep scrutiny of the movie’s plot line, surfacing fan theories on a probable Robin in the franchise. Only after a month of its release in March 2022, talks of The Batman 2 began. Therefore, fans expected that a recurring boy character could become the next Robin. However, director Reeves has cleared the air on the notion in an interview.
Matt Reeves’s take on Robin in The Batman
The character portrayed by Archie Barnes periodically appeared in The Batman since the opening scene. Thus, it gave rise to strong speculations and theories on whether Reeves will develop Barnes’s character arc as the Caped Crusader’s confidant in the sequel. The theories surfaced after Sean O’Connell from Cinemablend proposed the possibility that Mayor Mitchell’s son in the very first scene of The Batman could be the Boy Wonder.
As the theory took pace and derived the fans’ acknowledgment, Matt Reeves felt the need to share his standpoint on the theory. Talking to O’Connell on the ReelbBlend Podcast, the 57-year-old director clarified that while it is a great perspective, he didn’t intend it to be that way. Matt Reeves admitted,
“No, but you know It’s a cool idea. It wasn’t the intention…basically, now I have to give you credit…if we do.”
As all the hosts burst into laughter with Reeves’ response, the director also hinted that he would certainly consider the plot, while giving credit to Cinemablend Managing Director Sean O’Connell.
Why did the Mayor’s son reappear?
O’Connell pondered over the fact that the Mayor’s son kept popping up throughout the movie, which might hold some significance to the narrative. In responding to that the Cloverfield director revealed,
“Because he is Bruce, we weren’t doing an origin tale so we needed to find a way to make sure that you felt what was going on in an internal way, that you understood how Bruce, Batman was feeling. So he needed to be constantly confronted by his past without the pearls.”
In The Batman opening scene, Gotham City’s Mayor, Don Mitchell Jr. played by Rupert Penry-Jones is killed by Paul Dano’s The Riddler. Therefore, moments before the tragic death, The Riddler observes Mitchell’s son arranging for Halloween, clueless of the predicament to unravel. Additionally, at his father’s funeral later on, Robert Pattinson’s Batman rescues the kid from The Riddler’s attack.
The distinctive spotlight on the kid and his uniformity throughout the film gave rise to speculations of him being the future Boy Wonder. Moreover, Reeves’s independence from the James Gunn-led franchise heightened the possibility of the theory. However, Reeves has made his point, while not completely canceling the theory’s take on the narrative.
