Since Man of Steel jumpstarted the DCEU in 2013, it's felt as though the universe (as a whole) has been pretty desperate to namedrop, hint at or shine a light to various aspects of the DC Universe.
That's fine... to a degree. The problem is that most of these references have felt very on the nose and distracting in places. BVS was notorious for including a litany of Easter Eggs to events gone by (and even those yet to come), and it just seemed to exacerbate the film's already saturated plot. Nightwing shouldn't be afraid to pay the odd reference now and then, maybe even with the odd allusion to famous events from the comics, but not to the extent BVS did.
The problem Warner have here is that they're desperate to fill the gaps left by their choice for Batman. The decision to focus on an older, surlier, Miller-esque version of the character has left a massive history uncovered, and Warner - left frustrated by the potential of that timeline - are equally keen to explore it.
If Nightwing's a prequel, the problem lies in what it chooses to address. If it's set into the future, then it's the old reference-heavy script that'll be causing issues. Here's hoping they can resist temptation and just set out to tell a compelling story without all the needless add-ons.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
