When The Dark Knight Rises revealed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, John Blake, was actually named Robin, it sparked debate as to whether or not he was actually Robin or if it was just an homage to the sidekick. Adding to this, if he was indeed going to develop into the Robin we all know – or at least the Christopher Nolan version – could Gordon-Levitt get his own spin-off? Now, a dozen years after The Dark Knight Rises was released, the actor is confirming whether or not there were ever plans to expand the universe.
Speaking with Inverse, Joseph Gordon-Levitt put those Robin rumors to rest, saying, “Nolan was making a trilogy. He never wanted to make any more movies. This was an ending to his trilogy.” He also noted that there is an entirely different mentality within the superhero movie world now than there was in 2012. “It’s funny, we look back on it now with the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — everything is a sequel to a sequel to a sequel. But back in those olden days, doing a trilogy was a lot, and that was how it was thought of.” As for if he would ever turn up again in a DC movie, Gordon-Levitt maintains that he doesn’t really keep up with all of that.
Gordon-Levitt has a point there on the mindset of modern superhero flicks. Then again, Robin has never really worked on the big screen (sorry, Chris O’Donnell!), so despite the hope of Gordon-Levitt continuing on as the character (or Nightwing?) – or if he was going to take over as Batman so Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne could chill in Italy with Selina Kyle – it likely wouldn’t have worked out as well as we would imagine.
Outside of Robin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt had been rumored for various characters in the MCU, including Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy and Scott Lang in Ant-Man, but he denies them to this day. “Yeah, people like to talk. I understand why it’s fun to talk about these kinds of things. I don’t really have anything to add to this. I’m sorry.”
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