Nightwing Movie Gets A Crucial Update From Director
Director Chris McKay offered up some pretty exciting possible news around the potential for the Nightwing movie moving forward.
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Fans of the DC Extended Universe might have some reasons to be cautiously optimistic around future developments for the franchise. As we enter the post-Justice League timeline, there’s a whole lineup of future projects that are set to release over the next few years. One of them, a Nightwing movie, seems to have been stuck in limbo for some time now. But according to CinemaBlend, director Chris McKay is starting to feel optimistic the movie can actually be made. He says that recent developments at DC have the film looking like it’s possibly back on the table.
The interview with Chris McKay was part of the ReelBlend podcast and he was asked point-blank about what was happening with the Nightwing movie. While stopping short at a definitive answer about the production path for the proposed film, McKay did say that the way the DC Extended Universe was shaping up, in addition to how they are bringing multiple versions of characters to the big and small screen meant it seemed more realistic to get a solo film around this character actually made. Here’s part of what McKay had to say about it:
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not lost yet. It is obviously something that… they’ve had other priorities, they’ve had other challenges. They’d had things that they needed to do, and I think that they found their way. I think their recent successes, and the stuff that they are planning on doing now, I think it opens the door for us to still be able to do a Nightwing movie. Whether you call it ‘in an alternate universe’ or you pick in their multiverse version which universe it’s part of, there are different ways into it.
This quote about the Nightwing movie is interesting from McKay in that he’s basically saying the way DC has expanded its offerings of characters beyond what was simply happening around the Justice League characters meant that the studio might be at more liberty to actually bring this character into the forefront. No longer confined by one universe’s story timeline, Nightwing now could be part of a different universe altogether (Robert Pattinson’s The Batman?) or simply exist on its own a la The Joker. With DC sectioning off characters into different universes, there’s no longer a need for continuity if this particular story didn’t quite fit in with the Zack Snyder Justice League group.
Nightwing is, of course, the moniker for Dick Grayson after he leaves the side of Batman and strikes out on his own. Patrolling the city of Bludhaven, the character is divergent from Robin in both look and style, a much darker vigilante. According to McKay, his proposed movie would be heavy on the action, but also the heart of a character who is often wrestling with his own demons of the past while also moving out of Batman’s proverbial shadow. Any Nightwing movie would likely be a hybrid origin story and catch up with the character.
McKay didn’t mention exactly where a Nightwing movie would fit into the current universe, admittedly he seems to think there are a number of different ways to take it. But this interview also follows the Giant Freakin Robot exclusive that the Teen Titans are getting their own live-action movie within the DCEU. Nightwing has often been the leader of this group in its different iterations. Could McKay’s thoughts be tied to the film being made about the group?
And it’s not like we don’t have Nightwing in our lives right now. Brenton Thwaites portrays the character on the HBO Max series Titans about the reformation of the titular group. This new movie doesn’t look like it will tie to that universe specifically and would likely be a new casting for the character if/ when it’s released.
In all, this is pretty exciting Nightwing movie news with McKay feeling optimistic about getting the film actually off the ground. Considering the writer/ director’s background, one would have to think this would be a fantastic addition to the DC stable of hero movies whether it was in the DCEU or not.
