Chris O'Donnell was going to play Nightwing
Twenty years after the release of ''Batman Forever'', the former Robin actor tells ETOnline about a possible spin-off that nearly happened!
Chris O'Donnell has been a dedicated actor, steadily working on film and television for over two decades. While he is currently known for his role on ''NCIS: Los Angeles'', he is also remembered for his portrayal of Dick Grayson/Robin in the Joel Schumacher Batman films, but he almost got his own spin-off movie as Nightwing.
In an exclusive ETOnline article, O'Donnell looks back on the Burton-Schumacher franchise, his thoughts on playing Dick in ''Batman Forever'' and ''Batman & Robin'', where he could have gone with the role and how people reacted to the Bat-franchise. Previously, in 2012, O'Donnell revealed on ''Access Hollywood'' that Warner Brothers had been developing plans to give his character a spin-off film, but the idea was scrapped after ''Batman & Robin'' proved to be a commercial and critical disappointment.
What's most interesting is that that the proposed film intended to show Dick Grayson's evolution from Robin to Nightwing. According to screenwriter Mark Protosevich, Warner Brothers had plans for another Batman trilogy that would be much darker than the Schumacher films. Since Grayson was to be absent from the second film, he would return as Nightwing in the third installment. O'Donnell confirms that Dick would have changed aliases and grown into his own identity as a crimefighting vigilante.
"Yeah there was at one point: ''Nightwing''. When the reviews came out on Batman & Robin, that was shut down immediately," he says, reflecting on the spin-off. "This is has been a great opportunity for me, and I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It was an amazing opportunity and gave me incredible international exposure."
On a humorous side note, O'Donnell reveals that he still has one of the Robin costumes in a wooden crate down in his basement. "Honestly, my kids have never seen it," he jokes. "They're like, '"When are you going to open that thing?"' And I go, '"When I find a screwdriver."' It may have decomposed in there for all I know."
Although the ''Nightwing'' spin-off never happened, it is fascinating to wonder what might have been. Recently, however, TNT has announced plans for a ''Titans'' television series that is expected to feature Dick Grayson as he becomes Nightwing. Perhaps this one will fly again.