Summary
- Warner Bros. has canceled the planned Nightwing movie that was originally a spin-off of Ben Affleck’s Batman story in the DCEU.
- The uncertainty of the DCEU after the failure of Justice League and the abandonment of Zack Snyder’s vision contributed to Nightwing’s cancellation.
- With the upcoming Batman story in the DCU set to feature several Bat family members, likely including Nightwing, the different directions for Batman characters under Gunn and Safran also contributed to the film’s cancelation.
The planned DC spin-off film centered on the character of Nightwing has been canceled by Warner Bros. amid the studio’s planned DCU reboot. Headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, the soft reboot of the DCEU into the DCU was announced in November 2022. As such, Gunn and Safran have been hard at work both planning their own installments in the DCU and looking at currently in-development DCEU projects to see how or if they fit into the upcoming plan for DC Studios.
One of the latter projects was a planned Nightwing movie. However, a report from The Direct indicates that Warner Bros. has canceled DC’s Nightwing movie, likely for a number of reasons. With that said, here is everything about the planned Nightwing movie including who was set to be involved both in front and behind the camera and the reasons behind why it has been shelved by DC Studios.
Everything We Know About The Nightwing Movie
Firstly, the Nightwing movie was announced in 2017 with The Hollywood Reporter sharing that The LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay was in talks with WB to helm the film. Originally, the Nightwing project was intended to be a spin-off of the planned Ben Affleck Batman movie set in the DCEU. However, production on the Nightwing film likely stalled after Affleck’s future as the Caped Crusader became unclear. As is known, Affleck’s film was canceled in favor of 2022’s The Batman which rebooted the character yet again with Robert Pattinson in the starring role.
Despite this, rumors surfaced online in 2022 that Dylan O’Brien was in talks to play Nightwing in the planned spin-off. In 2023, Chris McKay reiterated his hopes of working on a Nightwing movie amid the planned reboot of the DC Universe under Gunn and Safran. In an interview for SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar) McKay stated that he loves the character and hopes he can still create something centered on the member of the Bat Family, though conversations had not taken place with either Gunn or Safran.
Everything We Know About Why The Nightwing Movie Was Cancelled
Of course, the reason for this lack of development from Gunn and Safran on the Nightwing movie was that the film was canceled for various reasons. One of the core reasons behind Nightwing‘s cancelation was likely the uncertainty of the DCEU. After the failure of Justice League and the abandonment of Zack Snyder’s vision in the DCEU, Affleck’s Batman fell out of favor with the heads of DC films at WB at the time. This led to the frustrating lack of plan showcased with the DCEU after 2017 which negatively impacted Nightwing as the character was set to be a spin-off connected to Affleck’s version of the character.
Since Gunn and Safran took over as the heads of DC Studios, the duo has confirmed an upcoming Batman story set in the DCU which will recast Batman in an adaptation of the comic series The Brave and the Bold. This story will center on Batman and the fourth iteration of Robin from DC Comics, Bruce Wayne’s biological son Damian Wayne. Safran has already confirmed that several members of the Bat family will feature in the DCU’s Batman story which likely already includes Nightwing. With the recasting of Batman in the DCU, Nightwing‘s cancelation likely comes from the different direction planned for Batman characters under Gunn and Safran’s DC umbrella.