Warner Bros. had a grand vision for its DCEU future as the studio announced a full slate of projects for the foreseeable future. One of the superheroes getting his own film was Nightwing.
It was revealed in February 2017 that director Chris McKay (The LEGO Batman Movie) and screenwriter Bill Dubuque (Ozark) had been signed for the project. McKay had said pre-production could begin in early 2018. However, that never happened.
Now, while promoting his new film, The Tomorrow War, McKay revealed in an interview with The Bear Cave that if it were to happen, the Nightwing film would be a revenge story and take place in Blüdhaven.
It becomes a revenge movie, and it’d be an introduction to Nightwing and the world of Blüdhaven. There was going to be a lot of villains. It was going to be real, it was going to be a character study about this guy who grew up with sort of a bad dad. How that made him as a young adult try to fight off and go as far away from that world as humanly possible and get dragged back into it.
Chris McKay
In the comics, Richard “Dick” Grayson is the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, aka, Batman. Trained by the Dark Knight himself, Grayson eventually became Batman’s sidekick, the first Robin. After Grayson part ways with Bruce, he took on the role of Nightwing.
Whereas, Blüdhaven is a city in New Jersey between Gotham City and Atlantic City. Nightwing used the city as his base of operations. The city was destroyed by the Society during Infinite Crisis and has been a nuclear wasteland since.
McKay explained that Warner Bros. had been working on a script before he was signed. DC had Bill Dubuque writing a version of Nightwing and that the draft “landed” after he was hired. McKay wanted to make a trailer pitch about the vision he had for the film but never got the chance.
So I took that draft with some thoughts I had as far as theme and the overall genre. There were some things I wanted to combined and built a trailer and never got the chance to finish it. It’s instructive to some of the things we were going to do with the movie, and also what DC has embraced since then is probably the best way I can describe it.
Chris McKay
But not all hope is lost as McKay mentioned that the film’s not entirely scrapped. He was hesitant to give more details as he still thinks the movie might get a green light and that the studio just has other priorities right now.
In another interview with SYFY WIRE, the director said that he’d always loved Nightwing’s character and that the revenge story is about fathers and sons, and “it’s gonna be a really awesome movie.” Although McKay dodged the question, maybe Batman would make an appearance in the film.
Meanwhile, the DCEU films you can expect to drop for sure are The Suicide Squad, The Batman, Black Adam, The Flash, Shazam! Fury of The Gods, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom with release dates extending into 2023.
About Nightwing
Warner Bros. revealed in February 2017 that Nightwing was getting his own film. Director Chris McKay (The LEGO Batman Movie) and screenwriter Bill Dubuque (Ozark) had been signed for the project.
However, the future of the project is uncertain as it has temporarily been put on a hold. The studio has other priorities right now with what direction they want to go in for DCEU.
The current script follows a revenge movie. It would’ve been an introduction to Nightwing and the world of Blüdhaven. There were going to be a lot of villains. It would explore Dick Grayson’s dynamics with Bruce Wayne and how things went sour between them.
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