The Big Robin Actor You Likely Missed Early In The Batman
After some controversy over Robert Pattinson playing the titular role of Bruce Wayne and production delays due to COVID-19, "The Batman" is finally here. The latest story told on screen featuring one of DC Comics' most famous characters ever is from director Matt Reeves, known for his work on 2014's "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and 2008's "Cloverfield." After Ben Affleck decided to step away from playing the Caped Crusader, Reeves stepped up to tell a new Batman story with Pattinson.
"The Batman" also features a plot with the main antagonist being The Riddler (Paul Dano), a character we haven't seen in live-action since Cory Michael Smith played the role on "Gotham." (There's also 1995's "Batman Forever" with Jim Carrey playing a highly charismatic and obsessive version of Edward Nygma.) Dano's version is incredibly darker, violent, and vengeful. Although both "Batman Forever" and "The Batman" feature The Riddler as one of their main antagonists, there are incredibly vast and obvious differences between both films. For one, there is a massively important character missing from "The Batman" that was featured in 1995 — Robin.
Although nothing is really ever hinted about Dick Grayson or Robin during "The Batman," an actor who had previously played one of the Robins in live-action appeared very early on in the movie, and you likely missed his scene.
The Batman's opening scenes feature an actor who played a Robin
The opening to "The Batman" starts off by introducing us to a very demented and creepy Riddler, although it isn't long before fans are hit with a narration from Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne. It's Halloween night and Gotham City is celebrating, but as Bruce notes, crime still runs rampant. Gotham City Police Department Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) lights up the Bat-Signal, and we see common criminals on the streets start to get scared, feeling fearful that somewhere nearby, Batman could be hiding in the shadows.
The film cuts to the subway where a few face-painted men are huddling around watching a video they took of themselves assaulting someone for fun, although the youngest in the group seems to be uncomfortable with it. Without much dialogue, the youngest is told by the leader of the group to pursue and attack another person on the subway with them, and as they do, they're confronted by Batman.
As seen in the first trailer for the film, Batman beats the leader and notes that he's "vengeance." The rest of the group, except for the young kid, proceed to attack Batman and fail. He and Batman share a look, where the kid seems simultaneously relieved that Batman showed up and also amazed by what he is and then runs off. Although it doesn't seem to be canon in Reeves' Batman universe given actor Jay Lycurgo's character name as "Train Gang Young Member" — he plays a Robin in another DC Comics project.
Jay Lycurgo is Tim Drake in Titans
If you're a DC fan, you probably saw Jay Lycurgo playing Tim Drake in Season 3 of "Titans" before his small part in "The Batman." The HBO Max show actually centers around being Robin in general, as fans were introduced to Brenton Thwaites' Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing and his journey to step away from being under the shadow of Batman (Iain Glen). Soon after, we are introduced to Curran Walters' Jason Todd, and in Season 3 we are introduced to Tim Drake, an intelligent young man who figures out on his own that Nightwing is Dick Grayson, Robin was (prior to his death) Jason Todd, and that Bruce Wayne is Batman.
During Season 3, Lycurgo's Tim goes through quite the transformative experience, as he is at one point shot by Scarecrow (Vincent Kartheiser) and nearly dies. During the finale of Season 3, we see that Tim is accepted by the Titans and leaves with Dick and most of the team to San Francisco and the Titans Tower once more. Lycurgo is set to return as a recurring character in Season 4 of the show, which has already started production. It's likely Tim's training from Dick or Bruce might be a focus in the show's plot moving forward.
It's unclear whether we will see Lycurgo again in possible sequels to "The Batman," but there isn't much of a chance that the actor would play two Robins in two different universes. On the other hand, we do have three different actors set to play three different big-screen versions of Batman in the same year, so anything's possible.