Dick Grayson a.k.a. Robin almost had his own TV show on The CW, but it ultimately got scrapped because of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. The Bat-Family has had quite the presence on the small screen over the last few years. For 5 years on FOX, Gotham told the origin stories of Batman’s infamous villains as well as Bruce Wayne before becoming the Caped Crusader. While it took almost a decade for The CW to get to explore the Bat-universe, Batwoman became the Arrowverse’s entry into that franchise as Kate Kane, Bruce’s cousin, came to the screen for a single season. With Kate now exiting the show, the Bat-legacy will continue through Ryan Wilder. While he has technically not appeared, Warren Christie is the official face for Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse, as the Batwoman season 1 finale revealed when Hush got his new face.
On the cable/streaming side, the Bat-Family has gotten a platform through Titans, starring Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson a.k.a. Robin, who has now become Nightwing. The second Robin, Jason Todd, is also a regular player as he’ll become Red Hood in the upcoming season. The DC drama even has Iain Glen playing that universe’s Bruce Wayne, and will soon be introducing another iconic Bat-Family member, Barbara Gordon. Yet despite Titans being the project that gave Dick Grayson a proper live-action treatment, the Boy Wonder actually almost had his own TV show over a decade ago.
In fall 2008, The CW revealed that two of the newly appointed showrunners of Smallville were developing a series titled The Graysons that would star Dick and his family. At this time, it was uncertain whether or not Smallville would continue after its eighth season. Series lead Tom Welling’s contract was going to be up after Smallville season 8, and while a renewal did happen in February 2009, The CW was still looking at new options for DC shows. Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, along with McG, were going to produce a series focusing on Dick’s origin story before tragically losing his family and being taken under Batman’s wing. The Graysons would center on “DJ” Grayson and would explore him facing challenges such as “first loves, young rivals, and his family” and his life as an acrobat.
The drama was going to be set in modern times and was going to be an “original take” on the Dick Grayson character. Had The Graysons gone to series, it could have served as a companion series to Smallville season 9. But in the end, the Flying Graysons simply didn’t fly; The CW had to scrap The Graysons. The decision wasn’t entirely because of the network, but because of Nolan’s massive The Dark Knight film series. Variety revealed that former Warner Bros. executive Jeff Robinov was partially responsible for getting The Graysons scrapped. According to Warner Bros., The Graysons didn’t happen because the concept “doesn’t fit the current strategy for the Batman franchise” and this happened a few months after The Dark Knight had hit theaters.
Variety even stated that Nolan had never “signed off” on the series and that he was, reportedly, uncomfortable, with letting a TV show tied to the Batman universe happen while his franchise was still ongoing. Back in the Smallville days, this was just one of the many situations where the writers couldn’t use certain DC characters, even though they always wanted to try and get Bruce Wayne on the show. Regardless of why the project got canceled, it’s probably for the best that The Graysons didn’t get made. Dick’s story doesn’t truly get interesting until the day he meets Bruce and becomes one of Batman’s closest allies of all time. In the end, Dick got his due through Titans, which has showcased his evolution from Robin to Nightwing – which is far more compelling than his acrobat career.
