Sure, the threat of a SAG strike continues to loom over Hollywood, but Christian Bale is willing to do his own work stoppage if things in the Batman franchise don’t go his way.
“If Robin crops up in one of the new Batman films, I’ll be chaining myself up somewhere and refusing to go to work,” New York Magazine’s Vulture quotes him as saying. Too bad, is what I would be quoted as saying, since I think that Batman 3 could actually use a dose of Boy Wonder, considering where the end of The Dark Knight leaves everyone’s favorite fetish suit-clad playboy.
I won’t spoil the end of the movie (Batman wins), but I do think by the time the credits roll on The Dark Knight the franchise is in a place where the inclusion of a Robin would be a burst of new energy. Done right – say as a mixture of Jason Todd’s streetwise origins and Tim Drake’s smarts – a new Robin would allow for interesting thematic developments that follow up on the latest film’s musings about heroism and Batman’s place in Gotham City. Running around with a minor (possibly one who, like Tim Drake, figured out Batman’s identity and refuses to leave the big guy alone) would also add another texture to Batman’s increasingly complicated relationship with the Gotham City PD.
So don’t listen to your dour leading man, Christopher Nolan. Consider the challenge of integrating Robin into your ‘realistic’ world of Batman. Maybe you could really set shit on its ear and have your Robin be Carrie Kelly, bringing a new female presence into the series without going to the Catwoman well. The possibilities, honestly, feel endless if done well.