Gotham Knights Team Explains Why They Chose Tim Drake as Robin and Tease Future Batman Role

When Gotham Knights debuted at DC FanDome, fans were excited to see Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and the Red Hood as playable characters, though there was initially some confusion about who the Robin in this game was. There are hints of Tim Drake and Damian Wayne in the design, but it did turn out to be Drake in the role. All of the Robins have their dedicated fanbases, so when ComicBook.com recently spoke to Gotham Knights Creative Director Patrick Redding we had to ask why Drake was the one to make the cut. Redding revealed that it was always going to be Drake from the beginning stages of development on the game, and even teased his journey to perhaps becoming Batman one day.

"So Tim Drake was our Robin choice right from the start and for reasons that I'm not going to get it to yet, because it does tie into the broader arc of the story, and we will talk about that a little later," Redding said. "Tim was the right Robin to be the newest Robin for where we're at, and as well for us, it allowed us to have a teenage Robin who was nevertheless still a physically formidable and physically credible fighter. Even though he has more of a stealth focus and a bit more of a focus in terms of how he's using his gadgets and using the tricks and detective intuition that he has, we still wanted a Robin that could credibly go through a full evolutionary arc that would end with him being the new Dark Knight of Gotham City."

"So that for us made a lot of sense, and it's great because if you're familiar with the lore and you know your way around the various stories about Tim Drake, it's not like completely unexplored territory," Redding said. "People have asked the question of, 'Where's Tim going? What's he turning into?' People sense that he might be a better detective than Bruce Wayne on some level, but he also has some of Bruce's other core idiosyncrasies as well and what is that going to evolve into? So for us, it's really fun, narratively and in terms of his progression. He's a character who I love thinking about because what kind of urban legend does Tim Drake create about himself when he is on the path to Knighthood?"

In the comics we've seen Drake become Batman, though that's been tied to an alternate future. Grayson is typically the one who is assumed to take on the title of Batman and has done so in the comics, but it will definitely be interesting to see how Gotham Knights approaches this journey and what it brings to the character of Tim Drake.

Gotham Knights is set to hit consoles in 2021, and you can check out more of our coverage right here!

Are you excited for Gotham Knights' take on Tim Drake? Let us know in the comments or talk all things Gotham Knights with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!