Robin reveal image for Titans with the character holding a weapon over one shoulder
By
Zoe Miskelly
Published 8 minutes ago
Zoë Miskelly is an editor for Screen Rant's Superheroes team, and has covered Marvel, DC, and other superhero franchises in comic, movie, and show form for 8 years. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.
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The DC Universe has the perfect way to set up Robin's introduction to the new film world in 2026 - or even explore the character's first on-screen story, should those involved be able to and wish to. DC's Robin roster is set to be explored in ways it never has in the live-action sphere in the DCU timeline, if the prior teases of Damian Wayne appearing in The Brave And The Bold do indeed become reality for the franchise.
Delving into Damian's story would be especially interesting since he is one of the later characters to pick up the Robin mantle in DC's history, with several beloved characters having held the title previously before moving onto new mantles. With this in mind, it's fascinating to note that one of the DCU's next releases has a perfect way to start setting up the story of one of these Robins based on what we know so far.
Clayface Has A Perfect Way To Tie Robin's Story Into The DCU Movie
Clayface attempts to smash a captured Batman in DC comics
While the DC Universe's Clayface movie appears to be inspired by a range of releases, Clayface writer Mike Flanagan has explicitly mentioned the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Feat of Clay" as one of the DC stories Clayface's script directly draws from. This makes sense - as Feat of Clay is a remarkable introduction to the character of Clayface that underlines the tragedy of the antagonist - though having Batman: The Animated Series as a primary source of inspiration also opens up other doors story-wise too.
Other than Feat of Clay, one of the other most famous and lastingly impactful animated episodes revolving around Clayface is that of The New Batman Adventures' "Growing Pains", wherein Robin seeks to protect a young girl from what appears at first to be her abusive father. While this isn't fully false, it's later revealed that the girl's "father" is Clayface, and she is a piece of Clayface who has become split from the character and become his child of sorts as a person who is sentient on her own.
The episode is interesting not just in that it provides a mystery that few could predict beforehand, but also in that it ties Robin and Clayface's stories together effectively - and gives Batman's sidekick a vendetta against the villain that could be an especially interesting avenue for an interconnected on-screen franchise like the DCU to explore, especially since Clayface is already tying the DCU together thanks to his prior appearance in Creature Commandos.
As such, it would make a lot of sense for Clayface to incorporate some aspect of the episode's story into its own - or otherwise to at least tee this story up for future chapters of the DCU if the franchise isn't at the point of bringing any Robin casting to the forefront yet - while also exploring more of the horror aspect of Clayface's new form, via the concept that said form can separate out into other sentient characters with their own hopes and dreams.
Using Clayface To Introduce Robin Could Be A Perfect Way To Balance Out A Missing Batman
classic comic art of dc's robin smiling with one arm out
While there are hopes for Batman to appear in Clayface in some capacity, it's unlikely the Dark Knight will play more than a glancing role at best in the film if he does indeed appear, as the DCU is currently without a live-action Batman casting, and the Caped Crusader's first DCU movie - The Brave And The Bold - is still seemingly quite a ways off coming to fruition or needing casting to occur.
As such, it could pay off more for the franchise to instead tease Robin here, despite that being a move that would be more out of left field - since this would encourage storylines that exist outside of the Dark Knight in Gotham, which would be particularly pertinent in terms of how it could pay off if and when groups like the Teen Titans are formed in the DCU.
With Clayface's debut currently being many months off, there's still some time to wait before we see how the movie unfolds - but hopefully its story will connect with the wider DC Universe in some form or another, whether that's through delving into Clayface's story links to Robin, or through taking some other narrative approach.
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DC Extended Universe
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