Best Way for Warner Bros. To Continue the Success of the Batman Franchise *Contains Major SPOILERS*

I think it’ safe to say we found the future of the Batman franchise: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. For those who have seen The Dark Knight Rises, we know that Batman and Bruce Wayne are both thought to be dead to the citizens of Gotham (though it is revealed that Bruce is still alive and well starting fresh with Selina Kyle.) It is also revealed that Bruce left the batcave in the hands of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, former GCPD cop “Robin” John Blake. The film ends with John Blake discovering the batcave… but I believe this is just the beginning.

Now many believe John Blake will take the place of Batman and be Gotham’s protector and I think this is safe to assume. However, will he become Batman or Robin or somebody else entirely? Does it matter? I think it does because I think what Warner Bros. should do is create a spinoff series set in the same or a similar universe with JGL as the lead.

Now I don’t believe he’ll become Robin because Robin was much younger in the comics and even though we all know they aren’t really following any character from the comics by inventing the Robin John Blake character, I still think he won’t be Robin and that that was just a nod to fans. Also Robin might seem out of place in this universe. I am actually one of the people who think Robin would have been a good addition to the franchise and that he could have been fitted in, but only as a sidekick and they’re would have had to have been much development of his character, so I understand his absence.

Others think that he will become Batman but again I don’t believe so because everyone thinks Batman is dead and I think JGL is smart enough to let Gotham’s legendary hero rest in peace.

So where am I going with this? If you haven’t already guessed I think the perfect way to continue the Batman series is create a Nightwing Spinoff movie series starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This way Warner Bros. would still have a marketable Batman character and even if the did decide to reboot Batman in the future (which I believe would be hard to do following a trilogy of this magnitude), it wouldn’t feel forced.

Another point is there would be no need to tell an origin story for we received enough character development from The Dark Knight Rises and could have John Blake start as Nightwing almost immediately. Interestingly enough he seems to already have his symbol. The bat symbol that Blake draws with chalk throughout the film resembles the Nightwing symbol in a way. Intentional? Maybe, but even if it wasn’t it certainly can be used.



Another advantage to this is people would already be familiar (and most likely not want to forget) Nolan’s universe. This would allow us to keep characters such as Gordon and Lucious and introduce other characters from the Batman mythos that were never featured in the previous films such as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Riddler, Penguin, etc.

This is the best way to continue the franchise and could potentially lead to some pretty great movies if done right. I’d love for Nolan to be a producer for the series and hopefully a capable director would be brought on. I even believe that if they wanted, they could introduce some of the more fantastical villains such as Killer Croc and Clayface if they wanted. I believe you can keep the tone of the original trilogy while introducing more fantastical elements to a grounded universe as long as they don’t seem completely out of place. Really in the end the sky is the limit as far as what can come from The Dark Knight Rises and I think there is already a great basis in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, for the sole reason that he was featured so much and that Gordon-Levitt played him so well.

Feel free to comment and share your opinions (even though you were going to anyway.)