Will the Live-Action Titans TV Show Star Robin or Nightwing?

Fans eager to learn who would be stepping into the role of Dick Grayson in the live-action Titans series debuting on the DC Comics-branded digital streaming service finally got their answer late last week. Actor Brenton Thwaites has been tapped with bringing the iconic sidekick-turned-leading man to life. This news, which following the castings for fellow Titans Raven and Starfire, means the series has over half of its announced roster filled. Only Beast Boy remains upcast, though rumors indicate Warners Bros. is also looking to add Hawk and Dove to the mix.

Billed as Titans' lead character, Dick Grayson is a name both casual and diehard comic books fans will immediately recognize as Robin, the Boy Wonder, aka Batman's original sidekick. Dick eventually moved on from the Robin moniker and took on the name Nightwing, a move designed to carve out a new path for himself without the looming shadow of the Dark Knight hovering over him.

All that said, there's been something peculiar regarding promotion for Titans, and Dick Grayson, specifically. It’s never explicitly stated which of Dick's superhero identities Thwaites will be playing in the superhero affair. Is it Robin, or is it Nightwing? All of the official press materials, dating back to the series announcement, refer only to “Dick Grayson” and never use either of his codenames. With the series titled Titans and not Teen Titans, you can’t blame fans for assuming the older Nightwing would be leading the group, but on the other hand, there is mounting evidence Warner Bros. is leaning towards the more familiar Robin name for the Titans’ leader.

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The Case for Robin

Our first set of clues leaning towards Robin has to do with the selection of imagery chosen when these announcements were made. The visual of the Titans team used in DC’s official press release of its digital service and for the Dick Grayson casting both contain Robin artwork from the comics. The Titans news was accompanied by the cover to the 1980s The New Teen Titans #1 by legendary artist George Perez. The cover features Robin front and center, backed by his teammates Kid Flash, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Wonder Girl.

Of course, the reasoning behind showing images of Robin may simply be because he’s the superhero who the general audience immediately thinks of when it comes to Dick Grayson's alter egos. DC may have been concerned about uploading a photo of Nightwing, thus risking a response of, “Who’s that guy?” The Dick Grayson/Robin character has been around since 1940 when he debuted in Detective Comics #38. That’s 70 years of cementing one’s place in the mind of the general public in various television and animated programs. In fact, Dick didn’t appear as Nightwing until 40 years after his Robin debut, in the pages of 1984’s Tales of the Teen Titans #44.

The 1960s Batman TV show starred Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as the Boy Wonder. Robin was also a fixture on Batman: The Animated Series, and headlined another animated adventure along the lines of Titans in Young Justice, which is also heading to DC’s streaming service for a third season. And while it may skew younger than the intended Titans audience, Teen Titans Go! has ensured Robin as a Titan is an association millions of people make.

We also can’t overlook that perhaps the cover for New Teen Titans was used because that team lineup will mirror the final roster for the live-action series. We already know Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy are locks. Who’s to say the remaining New Teen Titans won’t fill out the cast? While heroes like Kid Flash and Cyborg either already exist in live-action form as a part of The CW’s Arrowverse (Wally West in The Flash) or as a part of the DC Extended Universe slate of films (Victor Stone in Justice League), we’ve seen in the past that Warner Bros. isn’t concerned with having multiple versions of characters represented across various media platforms. Two different actors are currently playing Flash on TV and film, and a youthful Bruce Wayne in Gotham exists as a contrast to Ben Affleck's grizzled, older veteran in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

It's also wise not to discount the fact that, although Thwaites is 28 years old, he has a youthful appearance which can easily be used to have him playing an early-20s Robin.

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The Case for Nightwing

Of course, as we said earlier, the moniker most associated with Dick Grayson’s time as a member of the Titans goes to Nightwing, not Robin. If the series was titled Teen Titans or even New Teen Titans then there would be a stronger case for Dick’s first persona headlining the new series. However, the fact that Dick as a Titan has traditionally been as Nightwing works in Titans' favor, potentially giving the series a "coming of age" storyline to explore in its first season.

Think of it this way: Dick could show up as the wise veteran who's been in the superhero game for years as Robin, and is early in his second career as Nightwing. Assuming the rest of the cast will be relative newbies, just learning to use their special abilities, Dick as Nightwing could show them the ropes with the experience to back it up. Another benefit of launching with Dick being Nightwing is, it opens the door for Jason Todd or Tim Drake to be introduced at a later point as the new Robin in the Batman family. After all, DC loves its legacy heroes, and nothing represents that more than the Titans.

And Our Prediction Is.....

If we had to put money on it, we’d go with Robin as the name Dick Grayson will go by when Titans launches on the DC streaming service, though we're not going to rule out a Nightwing shift as early as the first season. The young superhero team being is officially described as “a group of young soon-to-be superheroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe.” If the group is just learning what it is to be heroes and work together as a cohesive unit, it doesn’t make sense to have Dick begin the show as Nightwing. It’s very possible Dick spends the first half of the Titans’ freshman season as Robin, before graduating to Nightwing full-time.