Dick Grayson has the unique occupation of being one of the few heroes in the DC Universe that's grown as literally as he has thematically. Fans have seen him become Robin as a teen, leave Batman to become his own man as Nightwing, and later even take on the mantle of the Bat himself. There's no character in the DCU that's travelled the same distance as he has, so any film should, ideally, replicate that element onscreen.
There's no point in taking a character like Dick Grayson and turning him into a proto-Batman, because it'd waste the very evident potential there is in his story. If it's a prequel (and we surely hope that it is), then it would do well to kick off from the moment Dick leaves the cave and carves out his own path in an unfamiliar city, away from Bat-fleck and away from the red and green costume.
Audiences will know who Dick Grayson is - he's the most famous Robin after all - but the whole Nightwing thing is a relatively untested concept for mainstream audiences. It's all well and good to make a 'badass' Nightwing film, but if you ignore the fundamental aspects of the character's journey then you may as well not bother.
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.
