Before landing the job of Beast Boy in the new DC Universe series Titans, actor Ryan K. Potter came very close to playing the Boy Wonder in Ben Affleck’s planned Batman movie.
Series producer and writer Geoff Johns revealed that Potter auditioned for the role of Tim Drake while Johns and Affleck were working on The Batman, when Affleck was still up to direct, produce, and star.
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#Titans star @RyankPotter “sent in tapes for Tim Drake back when Ben and I were doing #Batman.” – @geoffjohns #NYCC
— Russ Burlingame (@russburlingame) October 5, 2018
Johns told this story at New York Comic Con, with ComicBook.com’s own Russ Burlingame in attendance to report.
It seems like Potter’s take on the third Robin impressed Johns enough that he kept him in mind for Titans and thought he’d make a great fit as Beast Boy.
It remains to be seen if Robin will play a role in The Batman, especially now that Matt Reeves has taken over writing and directing duties while Affleck’s participation is still unconfirmed. We’ve yet to hear just what Reeves’ plot will be about, but the director has confirmed it will embrace all of the best aspects of the Caped Crusader’s history.
But fans can see Robins, from Dick Grayson to Jason Todd, in the new series Titans, which is premiering in one week on October 12th. Series star Brenton Thwaites spoke about how his character has left Batman’s side, only to find out that his former mentor has tasked a new youngster to be the Boy Wonder.
“Well, Jason Todd has become a replacement for Dick Grayson, so he has fulfilled my position working for Batman,” Thwaites told ComicBook.com. “So there’s a little bit of tension in the scenes where we meet because I have left for a reason. Like I was saying, it’s not the way of fighting crime that I believe in, and Jason Todd is, what I think, being brainwashed by Batman to believe that this brutal, destructive, murderous way of fighting crime isn’t right. So there’s a little bit of tension in me trying to teach him to right those wrongs and to not do everything he says.”
The new show appears to be embracing many of the aspects that made the Teen Titans comics so popular among fans in the’80s, while also putting a harder edge on the characters in order to appeal to an older demographic.
Fans will get to see how it all turns out when the series premieres next week. As for The Batman, that movie does not yet have a release date, but it is rumored to begin production in 2019.
