10 Best 2016 Movie Fan Theories

Far-fetched as some of them may be, there’s a lot of fun to be had reading up on the various theories the more fervent movie fans conjure up about their favourite films. Some brilliant fan theories have been spawned in the last few decades that range from the possibly plausible, like the theory that all Pixar films exist in a connected universe, to those that venture into conspiracy theory territory like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey being involved in the supposedly faked 1969 moon landing. Whether credible or completely insane, they’re still entertaining and proof of just how dedicated and attentive some movie watchers are.

Films released during 2016, though still in their relative infancy, have too spawned a tonne of amusingly in depth fan theories about their deeper meaning.

From potential political allegories to multiverse references, these are the year’s best (and sometimes craziest) fan theories.

One of the most wildly popular fan theories this year was an intricate conspiracy that purported the all-new Joker played by Jared Leto in Suicide Squad is actually no other than Batman’s sidekick, Robin. Or to be precise Jason Todd, Robin Version 2.0, who took over sidekick duties in the Batman comics after the original Robin, Dick Grayson, left the Caped Crusader to become Nightwing.

The evidence involves lots of attention to tiny details and expert level geekdom knowledge of the DC Extended Universe, so brace yourself. In the Batman comic A Death in the Family, Jason Todd is actually killed in a bomb blast orchestrated by The Joker but as fanboys point out Robin 2.0 did later come back from the dead and both Jason and The Joker have at one time taken on the alias of The Red Hood in both the comic and DC’s animated movies.

It doesn’t end there. In Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, there’s a scene in which we see a Robin costume pitted with bullet holes with the words ‘ha ha ha joke’s on you Batman’ scrawled on it, which sounds suspiciously like something The Joker might do. Add to that the fact that when pictures emerged of Jared Leto as The Joker in all his topless, tattooed glory, fanboys noticed scar-like spots that seemed to match up with the injuries depicted on the Robin costume in Batman V Superman and a tattoo of a bird that could be … wait for it … a ROBIN, and you have a full-blown DC Universe conspiracy.

Sadly, for all the effort and overanalysing fanboys put into the theory, it’s since been debunked by both Suicide Squad director David Ayer and Batman V Superman director Zack Snyder. Although, if your fanboys had craftily uncovered a massive future plot reveal, wouldn’t you attempt to pass it off as untrue too?