Ben Wan
- Nov 7, 2022
- 3 min read

Marlon Wayans's Robin: The Unmade Plans (With Eric Elliott & Ian Miller of Batman Enigma)

Updated: Nov 10, 2022

We discuss the Robin who never was - Marlon Wayans, who was cast in Batman Returns! Our friends behind the Batman Enigma fan comic join us as we dive into the attempts to bring Robin to the Burtonverse and then compare the Batman 89 comic Robin to their own version of Nightwing in Enigma.

Chapters:

0:13 Episode Introduction

We previously had Eric and Ian on our show to discuss their Batman Meets Godzilla comic here:

You can check out Batman Meets Godzilla here: http://batmanmeetsgodzilla.com/index.html/

And you can read Batman Enigma for yourself here: https://twitter.com/EnigmaBatman

4:52 Robin's Role in the Scripts Leading up to Batman 1989

While Robin appeared in Michael Uslan's Return of The Batman, Tom Mankiewicz's The Batman, Tim Burton and Julie Hickson's Batman treatment, Steve Englehart's The Batman treatments, and Bob Kane's infamous The Return of Batman treatment (all of which we've covered on the show), we focused this episode on everything from Sam Hamm's script onward.

You can read the 1986 Sam Hamm draft that featured Robin here:

https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/batman_early.html

The animated storyboard sequence of Robin's origin that Eric mentions later features Kevin Conroy as the Sam Hamm Batman, Mark Hamill as the Sam Hamm Joker, and Jason Hillhouse as the deleted Dick Grayson/Robin:

7:51 The Actors Considered for Robin in 1989

Ricky Addison Reed was mentioned in this article: http://www.1989batman.com/2014/01/vintage-magazine-article-comics-scene.html

Ben Affleck talked about his experience auditioning for Robin here:

https://screenrant.com/ben-affleck-matt-damon-robin-burton-batman/

Kiefer Sutherland discussed getting offered the role here:

https://www.onthebox.com/reviews/kiefer-sutherland-talks-24-the-movie-turning-down-batman-and-his-new-show-touch/

Eddie Murphy's name was mentioned and the behind the scenes story about the Ivan Reitman Batman was covered here:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/batman-movie-never-made-bill-murray-eddie-murphy-180019186.html

13:13 Robin's Role in Sam Hamm's Batman II

The Fantazone Magazine interview with Waters, where he mentions Robin as a street kid, comes from this interview:

http://www.1989batman.com/2014/12/vintage-magazine-article-fantazone.html

You can check out our interview where we asked Waters about this here:

32:11 Robin/Marlon Wayans's Role in Daniel Waters's Batman Returns

You can check out the May 20, 1991 draft by Daniel Waters here, though there were definitely drafts written before and after that have not made it to the Internet: https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/batman-returns_early.html

The quote about Robin having a bigger codpiece from Batman comes from here:

https://darkknightnews.com/2018/03/06/marlon-wayans-talks-almost-robin/

36:41 Was Taye Diggs Considered?

The article where Taye Diggs revealed that he was in the running for Robin came from here:

http://www.afterbuzztv.com/taye-diggs-was-almost-batman-franchises-first-black-superhero/

40:05 The Kenner/Tim Drake Connection to Batman Returns

We discussed the Kenner version of Robin here:

The full article on Neal Adams designing Tim Drake's Robin suit, which influenced the Kenner Robin, comes from here:

http://www.1989batman.com/2014/07/robin-relics-desigining-tim-drakes.html

43:14 Break

Check out our link for Barkbox here.

46:18 The Drake Winston Robin in the Batman 89 Comic

If you haven't checked them out already, watch Ben's video essays analyzing each issue of the Batman 89 comic and its connections to unmade scripts. They are the first six videos in the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvP7zAKZYmD_jElD-ZLFcPs1XbIDTxBEA

53:43 Batman Enigma

Batman Enigma is based on the Internet rumors surrounding Burton's Batman 3. While the rumors that Ian mentioned pointed to The Riddler as the main villain, the Batman Forever writers told us that it was their idea to bring the Riddler in, as detailed here:

1:14:24 Preview for Batman Enigma Issue 3

You can check out Ian's Codename Hunter here:

https://www.indyplanet.com/codename-hunter-1

https://www.indyplanet.com/codename-hunter-2

As well as follow Batman Meets Godzilla here: https://twitter.com/Batmanmeetsgod1

You can follow Ian on Twitter, IG, his website, and YouTube channel here:

https://twitter.com/ComicsThreat

https://www.instagram.com/triplethreatcomics/

https://triplethreatcomics.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtOaXr36b2ZVqkGOCXj4Trg

And follow Eric on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/ElliottComics

The Instagram post from Marlon Wayans comes from here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSvkOYCrp8y/

You can check out the Batman 89 audios that Ian wrote, including the "What If" versions that feature impressions of Christian Bale's Batman vs. Heath Ledger's Joker and Ben Affleck's Batman vs. Jared Leto's Joker over at Neuverse Creative here: https://www.youtube.com/c/NEUVERSECREATIVE/videos

1:33:36 Fan Comments

1:42:28 Closing: Fan Shoutouts and Social Media Promotion

Big thanks to our research assistant Dan Yamat for providing the visuals for this YouTube experience, as well as the usual QC and chapter time codes.

Thumbnail by Dan as well

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