NIGHTWING: Director Chris McKay Reveals New Story Details And Whether The Movie Would Tie Into THE BATMAN

NIGHTWING: Director Chris McKay Reveals New Story Details And Whether The Movie Would Tie Into THE BATMAN

Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) was once developing a Nightwing movie for Warner Bros., but the project has since fallen by the wayside. Now, the director discusses the plot & whether we'd have seen Batman.

News
By JoshWilding - Jun 25, 2021 03:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Nightwing
Source: The Bear Cave

A Nightwing movie once appeared to be a priority for Warner Bros., but like a lot of the other projects we've heard about, it soon fell by the wayside. That left The LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay in limbo, and he instead went on to take the helm of The Tomorrow War for Paramount Pictures. 

Talking about that movie during an interview with The Bear Cave, the filmmaker opened up about his plans for Dick Grayson in the DC Extended Universe. 

"It was going to be a character study about this guy who grew up with sort of a bad dad," McKay says, referring to Batman. "How that made him as a young adult try to fight off and go as far away from that world as humanly possible and get dragged back into it."

"It becomes a revenge movie and it’d be an introduction to Nightwing and the world of Blüdhaven," he continued. "There was going to be a lot of villains."

McKay would go on to confirm that the budget was going to come in at less than $100 million, adding that Warner Bros. has never actually told him they're not making this Nightwing movie. As a result, he remains optimistic it could become a reality down the line (unfortunately, some of what he had planned does sound quite similar to what we've seen play out in Titans). 

As for whether there were plans to tie into Ben Affleck's version of The Batman, the director adds: "There was still some stuff that was needed to be determined of what that was going to look like. [It was] a Nightwing movie like you were picking up a Nightwing comic. You’re not guaranteed Batman was going to show up, but he could show up and other people could show up, but again you’re dealing with Nightwing and that’s what I like about it."

Time will tell what happens with Nightwing, but with a Batgirl movie coming to HBO Max in the not too distant future and Dick still a focal point in Titans, something tells us we could be waiting a while. 

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RageDriver2401
RageDriver2401 - 6/25/2021, 3:36 AM
Meaning WB had no idea what came before, after or what world this movie was set in. I wish they'd just held off on production of these movies until they came up with a concrete plan.
Battabing
Battabing - 6/25/2021, 9:16 AM
@RageDriver2401 - They would need to since Snyder kept telling everyone he killed Dick Grayson off-screen in BvS.
How do you destroy a whole [frick]ing potential franchise from a decision as dumb as that?
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 6/25/2021, 10:03 AM
@RageDriver2401 - Thats a problem every studio faces though. All the 1st iteration of marvel adaptations were only on their most popular characters without any real universe (F4, ghost rider, daredevil, etc.). Same is happening with DC now: no 1 wants Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg, etc. and would rather make Black Adam, a Joker solo film, or the good directors only want Batman characters.

You can't make a plan or world if no 1 reputable wants to make a film with those characters. There are less than 5% of movie directors in the world that a studio will actually trust them with 100+ mil unless they have some serious connections.
dracula
dracula - 6/25/2021, 3:38 AM
Would be cool to see a nightwing movie soon but id rather Dick be introduced in The Batman universe and maybe have him become Nightwing after 2 or 3 movies
KWilly
KWilly - 6/25/2021, 4:17 AM
@dracula - And by that rate, we'd see a Nightwing movie in 2029 lol. Maybe
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 6/25/2021, 4:38 AM
@KWilly - Unless they go for an older Dick, like in Batman Forever and make him Nightwing straight away rather than Robin.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 6/25/2021, 6:59 AM
@GwenLantern - The ideal would be a Batman movie where he's actually in the prime of his career. An established Batman Family and Bruce in his 30s. But for some reason, WB always wants to either have a brand new Batman or an old Batman days away from retirement
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 6/25/2021, 7:46 AM
@Nightwing1015 - In all my time as a Batman fan I've noticed that whenever they start from the beginning they'll always get to Robin and then stop.
It's a problematic period because up until Grayson gaining more independence from Batman in his teens, the Batman comics, cartoons and live-action appearances were at their most purile. They are hard to adapt.
The other Robins were different, because they all came into continuity after comic books had started to become more mature and Batman comics returned to their darker, more crime-based detective story roots.
Metatextually, Dick's past as a gee-whiz, holy-cow, goofy kid-sidekick can sometimes be relevant, but it's so hard to do in any serious continuity and every attempt to do so, beyond the origin has failed.
I feel that the only way to bypass the sense of obligation to adapt these elements of Grayson's time as a goofier Robin is to have him be Nightwing from day one. He could still be a sidekick and be living under Bruce's shadow (and would still be reliant upon his hospitality to a degree, too).
If not that then the only way to do it would be to dive into an already established world in which Dick has been Robin for several years and Bruce is, as you say, in his 30s, in the prime of his career and Dick is much older and looking for his own identity, like the Silver Age continuity or Post-Crisis in the comics or like Batman: The Animated Series, Young Justice, Teen Titans and Titans on TV.
Without skipping Dick's early years as Robin or erasing them entirely, we'll never get to Nightwing.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 6/25/2021, 8:05 AM
@GwenLantern - Or we could have his Robin years based on a more modern take like BTAS or Young Justice
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 6/25/2021, 9:24 AM
@Nightwing1015 - Yeah, but see we only see the later Robin years (except for flashbacks). We see Robin as a member of Young Justice, when he's already getting away from Batman.

In BTAS, we get a flashback to the origin in Robin's Reckoning, but he's a squeeky voiced kid. In the regular series, it's many years later and Robin is at college and only teams up with Batman occasionally. Half the time Bats is going solo.

So we never really get a Robin Year One or Year Two or Three (other than the actual origin story of course, like Robin's Reckoning or Batman Forever).

But yeah, we could have a more mature Robin from the get-go. As long as we get to Nightwing quick enough and they don't feel the need to pay homage to the classic 1940s-1960s Batman and Robin era. Because that era is so big and large in peoples minds and so they feel they have to do it a service. Then we get something like Batman and Robin (1997) and the franchise dies.
Turtlestrong
Turtlestrong - 6/25/2021, 9:51 AM
@KWilly - Yep, and it will be a gender flipped Nightwing that is on Earth-425!
Chekkarma
Chekkarma - 6/25/2021, 3:51 AM

At this point just focus on making good movies. There’s been more announced DC movies that end up canceled than I can count.I don’t care if they are connected, they have failed at that already and have shown they are ready to move on from Snyder and his vision.Just give me good DC movies and I will be happy.
GwenLantern
GwenLantern - 6/25/2021, 4:50 AM
@Chekkarma - Making good movies and having their movies connected are not mutually exclusive things.

It's not like having them being connected stifles creativity. In a lot of ways it inspires more creativity. Look at the comics. Look at the MCU. Would Infinity War have been as good if the GOTG was a separate universe? Or if any of those franchises had been separate?

In the words of Matt Reeves (who should really be in charge of DC rather than a faceless uncaring exec):
Chekkarma
Chekkarma - 6/25/2021, 5:27 AM
@GwenLantern - True but as it sits the movies that have made it a point to not focus on connectivity but just tell a decent story have been the most successful financially and reception wise for DC….Wonder Woman,Aquaman, Shazam, Joker, all getting sequels while the connected, overly crammed 3 film Snyderverse is dead…..keep it simple, make decent enjoyable movies and people will watch and spend money.
Kyos
Kyos - 6/25/2021, 3:56 AM
Really makes you wonder what a DCEU we might've seen if Batman's introduction hadn't been given to Snyder with his TDKR fetish.
RageDriver2401
RageDriver2401 - 6/25/2021, 4:10 AM
@Kyos - I still don't understand how they gave him the go ahead for that movie.
dragon316
dragon316 - 6/25/2021, 4:21 AM
@Kyos - dceu and tdkr are not in dictionary I don’t see them know meaning for them
GhostDog
GhostDog - 6/25/2021, 4:01 AM
“There was going to be…”

“It would’ve been…”
UXASIS
UXASIS - 6/25/2021, 4:35 AM
A revenge movie?

I love those, but Dick is usually not that dark, more of a charming, cool, fun guy.

Anyway, we've got a pretty dark Dick in Titans (which they cast really well imo, even though the show has mistakes).

I wonder who were the villains. Dick has some rogues gallery (Blockbuster and Deathwing).
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 6/25/2021, 8:10 AM
@UXASIS - is it porn on titan? And is the dick black or ethnic?
UXASIS
UXASIS - 6/25/2021, 12:55 PM
@MyCoolYoung - Nah, I mean Nightwing ;)

Although Titans are R-rated.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 6/25/2021, 4:49 AM
They tried the dark Dick in Titans, and it didn't really work.

I don't know who suggested it on here, but I like the idea of a Nightwing and Batgirl project more. And preferably one that isn't ''dark''.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 6/25/2021, 5:36 AM
@KWilly - oh yeah, and I still think it's a good idea
KWilly
KWilly - 6/25/2021, 5:44 AM
@bkmeijer - Honestly, I think they still can. That HBO Batgirl movie could have Nightwing as another main character if they want to. And if received well, could be a backdoor solo for this McKay movie.
Reeds2Much
Reeds2Much - 6/25/2021, 5:22 AM
So basically Deathwing.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 6/25/2021, 5:28 AM
Dark Dick lol

Grayson is a fun guy. Titans failed to understand that and it looks like McKay wants to follow them unfortunately
marvel72
marvel72 - 6/25/2021, 5:37 AM
Wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this movie to come out. It'll probably be dropped in a few months.
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