Batman's sidekick, Robin, didn't make his modern big-screen debut until Batman Forever in 1995. Chris O'Donnell played the Boy Wonder and reprised the role in Batman & Robin two years later, but the character hasn't appeared in a movie since.
DC Studios is now plotting The Brave and the Bold, which, when it was announced at least, was set to revolve around Bruce Wayne training his son, Damian, as the new Robin.
However, in a different corner of the Multiverse, we'd have met Robin in Tim Burton's Batman, released in 1989. There's been chatter for years about the filmmaker having something planned for the hero, but Heritage Auctions (via The Hollywood Reporter) has shared some storyboards revealing what might have been.
As the trade explains, "Currently up for grabs is a storyboard sequence showing a never-shot scene from Batman that features Robin in a struggle with the Joker, with Batman’s life hanging in the balance."
"The whole sequence was to have been a third-act intro of Robin, but was deemed too much of a shoehorn and thus was cut," the report continues. "Robin's intro was punted to the sequel, where he would have been played by future Scary Movie star Marlon Wayans. But that, too, got nixed."
Yes, the Scary Movie star really was being eyed to play Dick Grayson, a pretty radical bit of casting that Burton had planned for his unmade Batman Returns sequel.
These storyboards below don't feature any specific actor's likeness, and were illustrated by David Russell, who also worked on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Believe it or not, the auction has only reached $59 as we write this.
Previously, 24 star Kiefer Sutherland said that Burton approached him about playing Robin in Batman. "I’d just finished Stand By Me and Young Guns about the time that Warner Bros were making the first Batman film with Michael Keaton and I got a call which asked me if I would be interested in playing Robin," he said in 2012.
"I was like, 'As in Robin with tights? No!' I didn’t realise they were going to make the coolest movie ever!" the actor continued. "They didn’t have a Robin in the end, but I was only 19, so my agent could have helped me out a bit on that one."
It's always fun to think about what might have been, but it's now down to DC Studios and James Gunn to put a fresh spin on Robin and figure out what the character means to Batman in the present day.