Robin (Burtonverse)

"My brother's wire broke once and I swung out and grabbed him. My father said I was his hero. I flew in like a Robin."

- Dick Grayson

Robin (real name Dick Grayson) is Batman's crime-fighting partner and the deuteragonist in both Batman Forever and the critically panned Batman & Robin.

He was portrayed by Chris O'Donnell

Batman Forever
Richard Grayson was the youngest son of John and Mary Grayson. They were a team of acrobats called the Flying Graysons who worked in a circus along with his elder brother Mitchell.

They went all across the globe with the rest of the circus with their astounding acts.While they were on tour in Gotham City, their show was interrupted by a psychopathic villain named Two-Face who, along with his cronies, held the audience and entertainers hostage with an orb hung from the top of the tent filled with two hundred sticks of Tri Nitro Tuluene (TNT) controlled with a radio detonator set to go off in two minutes, but would disarm it in exchange for Batman to reveal his identity.

Bruce Wayne, who was in attendance at the circus, tried to sacrifice himself, but due to the screaming of the terrified audience, Two-Face was unable to hear him. The Graysons selflessly decided to help everyone by destroying the explosive device themselves. While Dick successfully disposed of the orb, Two-Face flipped his coin to decide the fate of Dick's family; the coin landing on the scarred side. As a result, Two-Face shot apart one of the harnesses that were keeping the rest of Dick's family hanging, causing them to fall down to the hard ground below, dying on impact. Dick returned and was greatly heartbroken to see the dead corpses of his whole family. He never slept, spoke to anyone or even ate because of this terrible tragedy and gained a seething hatred for Two-Face.

Sometime later, Commissioner Gordon took Dick to Wayne Manor where Bruce Wayne, feeling partly to blame for the murder of Dick's family, took him in, though Dick did not want to stay (for long, at least). He quickly struck up a friendship with Alfred Pennyworth. When Alfred brought up the image of a Robin on Dick's motorcycle helmet, he told Alfred that he once saved his brother's life during circus practice after Mitchell's wire broke by swinging out and grabbing him ("I flew in like a Robin."), earning tremendous respect from his father who praised him as a hero. Seeing great potential in Dick as a crime fighter, Alfred assured Dick that "broken wings mend in time" and promised "one day Robin will fly again".

After discovering the Batcave, he decided to go for a joyride in the Batmobile. He saved a teenage girl from a street gang, who had him outnumbered until Batman arrived. Dick was initially furious upon learning that Bruce was Batman and blamed him for his family's deaths. Later, he demanded that Bruce help him find Two-Face so he could kill him. Bruce refused, not wanting Dick to end up like him; a loner. But Dick insisted on being involved.

When Batman was almost killed by Two-Face after the latter and his goons crashed the Nygmatech business party, Dick (dressed in his circus outfit and wearing a mask) intervened and saved his life. Bruce, however, was angry with him for putting his own life at risk, and rejected his offer to join him as his partner in crime-fighting. When Bruce decided to give up being Batman to pursue a normal life with his girlfriend, Chase Meridian, Dick ran away before Chase was kidnapped by both Two-Face and the Riddler, taking his circus costume and one of Batman's suits with him.

When Batman was on his way to rescue Chase and stop Two-Face and the Riddler, Dick returned, wearing a crime fighter's suit, and became Batman's new partner, "Robin", to save her. Upon arriving at the Riddler's fortress, Claw Island, Batman and Robin were separated and forced to split up. Robin found Two-Face and viciously thrashed him in a vengeful rage, sending him hanging over the edge of a cliff. Unable to take a life, he pulled him back up with the intention of sending him to jail. Two-Face responded by taking him at gunpoint to the Riddler. He was tied up, gagged with duct tape and placed in a giant glass cylinder with Chase, in another cylinder, on the other side of the room.

Batman arrived and the Riddler gave him a choice to save Chase or Robin. Batman destroyed the Riddler's mind device, warping the villain's mind in the process. The Riddler made the lids of the two cylinders holding Robin and Chase open, sending them down to the rocks and water below. Batman, however, saved them both, but Two-Face appeared, taking aim at the three of them. When Two-Face was finally defeated by Batman, he stared at him as he fell to his death, satisfied that his family was avenged. In the years that followed, Robin continued to serve as the Dark Knight's sidekick.

Batman & Robin
Robin became a little more independent and used rash methods which caused Batman not to trust him. He almost got himself killed by Mr. Freeze and turned by Poison Ivy, which left Batman frustrated.Dick Grayson became romantically entangled with Alfred's niece Barbara Wilson, who would join the crime fighting team under the alias Batgirl. He was deeply sorrowful when he learned that Alfred was dying from a rare disease called Macgregor's Syndrome. In the end, Robin did stay in Batman's team, and together they defeated Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze and Bane, also obtaining a cure for Alfred's condition from Freeze in the process, who offered it to them out of gratitude for revealing to Freeze that it was Ivy, not Batman, who tried to kill his wife, and that they had found and restored her. Bruce and Dick's trust in one another was finally restored and their bond grew stronger, becoming family.

Trivia

 * This version of Robin is very similar to Jason Todd in the comics.
 * His Robin costume in Batman & Robin bears similarities to the comic's current Nightwing costume just with an added cape. Dick Grayson even suggested "Nightwing" as his possible "sidekick name" in Batman Forever.
 * Producers of the 1989 film considered using Robin and had even cast an actor, but they eventually dropped the character.
 * Robin appeared in various scripts of Batman Returns, but was removed due to too many characters in the film. However, despite his exclusion from the movie, an action figure of Robin was still made.
 * An unproduced script featured Robin as a homeless boy vigilante, who becomes an ally to Batman. He was the leader of a juvenile gang, beating people up, and he eventually has a "hard-edged" relationship with Batman, who takes him in as his sidekick.
 * Robin was later changed to an intelligent African-American teenager who was also a garage mechanic working in an autoshop garage. He was to supposedly fix the Batmobile after the Penguin wrecks it.
 * According to screenplay writer Daniel Waters, he wears an old-fashioned garage mechanic uniform with an 'R' on it.
 * There was a scene where he drives the Batmobile, which was used in the third film. He even helps Batman out of a jam.
 * Marlon Wayans was cast, and signed for a sequel. Wayans had attended costume tests, but it was decided to save this character for a later film.
 * Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg were considered for the role of Robin for Batman Forever.