8 Scrapped Movie Plots That Turned Up In Other Films

2. Robin Was Planned To Appear Before Batman Forever

When Tim Burton’s Batman premiered in 1989, a lot of people were asking: Where’s Robin? Burton didn’t exactly have the same distaste for the character that Christopher Nolan would later when he made his Batman films. The character of Dick Grayson was not intended to show up until the sequel so that Batman could be given a proper introduction.

In early drafts of the Batman Returns script, Grayson was going to be a leader of a street gang who came to earn Batman’s respect, and who would eventually be taken under his wing. That idea was scrapped (although the street gang appeared in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin), and instead Dick Grayson was written as a young garage mechanic who would help Batman repair the Batmobile – we’re guessing after the Penguin trashed it. The role was going to be small, maybe just one or two scenes to introduce the character, who would then take on the role of Robin in the next film.

A young Marlon Wayans was cast in the role, and even signed on for a sequel. On a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2018, Wayans discussed his being let go from the film. The decision came down to the film already having too many characters to juggle. Wayans was paid a hefty amount despite being cut, and when the series took a different course after Joel Schumaker took over directing duties for the third film, the role was recast with Chris O’Donnell and his introduction was much different.