A few months ago came
word that Warner Brothers is getting set to do a Ben Affleck-starring Batman
solo movie as part of their greater DC Cinematic Universe, and now comes some
interesting news on one Jason Todd.

JoBlo
is reporting that the WB currently has plans to have the Red Hood play a large
part in the first of their new Bat movies. The Red Hood, of course, is Jason
Todd, the Caped Crusader’s dead Robin, back from the dead. At first taking out
criminals in a clinical way and leaving convenient clues for the World’s
Greatest Detective as to who he is, the Red Hood would end up actually working
alongside Batman and become one of the good guys in an anti-hero sort of
fashion.

Poor Jason was famously killed off in A Death in the Family, leading to a more insular Dark Knight until
Tim Drake finally convinced Bats to let him become his new Robin. Even then,
Batman was always tormented by the fate of Jason. Beginning with a tease in the
fantastic Hush, Jason would be
revealed to have returned from the grave in Under the Hood.

These new rumours of a big screen Jason Todd claim that he,
along with Jared Leto’s Joker, will be the two main villains of the movie, with
the plan being for the Red Hood to leave clues throughout the film as to his
real identity. It’s even being reported that we’ve already seen the first of
these clues in the Batman v Superman trailer,
as the newspaper clipping that reads “You
let your family die” is rumoured to have been sent by Jason. Of course, we’ve
also seen a vandalised Robin outfit in that trailer too, with many presuming
that the suit in question is indeed that of Batman’s fallen Robin. It’s
additionally worth noting that, yes, we will also see Dick Grayson appear in
the new Batman movie as Nightwing, aiding the Dark Knight against Joker and Red Hood. No
word on whether there’s a Tim Drake in this world, though.

A large part of the reason that Warner Brothers want to
utilise the Red Hood character is down to the popularity and success of the
Winter Soldier over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – as in ‘new lethal rogue
is revealed to be a twisted version of a long-dead sidekick’. The current plan
from Warners also calls for an unknown actor to play the character.

As for the film itself, the regular rumour is that it will
be called The Batman, although that’s
not official at this stage. Not content with starring in the film, Ben Affleck
will also be co-writing the script with DC’s Geoff Johns, and there’s talk that
either Affleck or Johns could end up directing the film. Then there’s the
stories that this will be the first of a new trilogy of Batman-focussed movies.

Of course, before that, Affleck’s Caped Crusader will make
his bow in March 2016’s Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice before having a small part to play in August 2016’s
Suicide Squad and then going on to
play a key role in Zack Snyder’s two-part Justice
League in 2017 and 2019.