Nightwing director teases “f***ing badass” action movie

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The DCEU has already rolled out its heavy hitters – like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman – so as they progress they’ll give lesser-seen heroes time to shine. Among those will be Dick Grayson a.k.a. Nightwing, whose Robin persona has only been seen in BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN & ROBIN. As the NIGHTWING movie gets closer and closer to fruition, director Chris McKay assures us he will make up for all that time the character has spent in the shadows.

While speaking with Collider, McKay talked about how he plans for his Nightwing to be the John Wick of the superhero universe, promising real stunts, minimal CG, and to push his leading man to the absolute physical limits. In other words, Nightwing is going to be a total beast:

It’s gonna be a fucking badass action movie with a lot of heart and emotion. It’s gonna be a crazy, fun ride. Whoever gets cast as Nightwing, and any of the other actors around, are gonna go through a fucking boot camp experience because it’s gonna be a lot. I’m not gonna do a lot of CG. It’s gonna be all real shit. It’s gonna be real stuntwork, and they’re gonna need to do all of the stuff on camera and do it credibly. For the cast and the crew, it’s gonna be a visceral experience, and for the audience. It’s not gonna be like a lot of these movies where there’s a lot of CG and flying, and things like that. Everything he does is gonna have to be real. His superpower is being really fucking good, as a human being, at fighting and gymnastics and shit like that, so you’re gonna see that on screen. It’s gonna be fun!

Despite there having been numerous live-action BATMAN movies since Tim Burton directed his first film, the character’s trusted sidekick, Grayson, has barely been seen on screen. McKay’s goal is to finally tell his story with grace and heart, and to take advantage of his “underdog” status:

I’m a big comic book fan, and being able to do the story of Nightwing, to do a Dick Grayson story, which is a character that every single person in the world knows, but has never really had a lot of screentime. They make a billion Spider-Man movies and a lot of Batman movies, and they’ve tried The Hulk. When they were making the Tim Burton movies, they were always like, ‘Oh, maybe we’ll do Robin in this now. Maybe we’ll save Robin for Returns. Nope, we’ll save it for the next one.’ With Christopher Nolan, people were like, ‘Is he gonna do Robin?’ When they made Batman v Superman, they were talking about it. I’m a big fan of underdog stories, and he is one of the biggest underdog stories in comics. And he’s a character that I grew up with. I like the arc.

McKay’s movie is still ways off, as casting hasn’t even begun yet, but I pray for the soul who has to undergo all that training to, essentially, become a real-life superhero. The director doesn’t seem to be messing around and has a clear vision in his head to create a movie that looks and feels as realistic as possible. Seeing Batman (Ben Affleck) brutally take down those thugs in BATMAN V. SUPERMAN gave me hope a gritty BATMAN movie would happen – and would rock – and chances are that movie could be NIGHTWING instead.

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