DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have repeatedly said that they want to tell as many different types of stories in and around the DCU as possible. Among the most intriguing is Swaybox's animated Dynamic Duo.
Announced last October, the movie is expected to be as big a game-changer for DC in animation as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was for Marvel and Sony. A new writing duo has just been tapped to rewrite the script, and with that news comes some additional story details.
According to The Wrap, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber are now working on Dynamic Duo. The writing team is best known for penning Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer and earned an Academy Award nomination for The Disaster Artist. They also count Daisy Jones & the Six and Rosaline among their credits.
The trade reveals that the movie, which "is a combination of miniatures, models, puppetry, animatronics and computer animation," will revolve around Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, who have both taken on the mantle of Robin as Batman's sidekick in this story.
That's a major departure from the comic books, so you'll likely be relieved to learn that Dynamic Duo "will take place in a separate timeline from his films starring Robert Pattinson and, as we understand it, outside of the current DC Universe canon."
That arguably makes much more sense than treating this as a "prequel" to The Brave and the Bold, a movie expected to revolve around Bruce Wayne training his son, Damian, as Robin (which itself suggests Batman has already protected Gotham City alongside Dick, Jason, and Tim Drake).
In the comics, Dick was the first one to hold that mantle before leaving Batman's side to become Nightwing. He was taken in as Bruce Wayne's ward after his parents, acrobats the Flying Graysons, were killed by gangsters.
As for Jason, Batman found him attempting to steal one of the Batmobile's wheels and took the boy under his wing. Jason was never the obedient son Dick was, and ended up being killed by The Joker. However, he'd later rise from the dead as the violent vigilante Red Hood. They were never Robin at the same time.
Earlier this year, DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn suggested there may be a way to make Dynamic Duo "canon" somewhere down the line.
"There might be a way it might fit into the DCU," he teased. "I would love for this animated puppet movie to be a part of the DCU. That's really appealing to me, but the story is unique, and so it may not work within our universe."
Dynamic Duo is set to be released in theaters on June 30, 2028.