‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’: Director Zack Snyder reveals what happened to Robin, crushes Joker theory [VIDEO]

“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” has one character missing, and it hasn’t escaped the notice of comic book fans. What happened to Robin, the boy wonder? Director Zack Snyder has an answer, one that will kill the popular theory about Joker’s real identity once and for all.

Mild spoilers for the film ahead

In the trailer for the blockbuster but critically panned film, there’s a scene where Bruce (Ben Affleck) looks at a costume of Robin, vandalised with the words “Hahaha Joke’s On You Batman.” Robin’s whereabouts are unexplained in the film, but it’s understood that something really bad happened to him. It’s either that he was already dead or, according to a theory persistently floating online, Robin is actually Joker, who also isn’t in the film.

See Robin’s vandalised costume @0:57 mark:

YouTube/Warner Bros. Pictures

Snyder has a theory of his own. For him, Robin’s absence in the film has something to do with Joker, but not as the popular notion assumes.

“In my mind it was that Robin had died about 10 years earlier in some run in with a young Joker. So that was an interesting thing to me. Sorta a fun backstory to play with,” Snyder told IGN.

YouTube/IGN

Joker as Robin isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. In the DC comic book “Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again” (2001), Dick Grayson, the original Robin who was fired by Batman some years ago, had gone insane and became the Joker.

This is the same theory that is also applied to the upcoming “Suicide Squad,” in which the Joker is played by Jared Leto. It would be interesting to see if the film, to be released in Australia on August 4, will go the same route.

With “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” going with Affleck’s Batman and a dead Robin, the chances of Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring in his own Robin film is nil. In “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), it was revealed that Gordon-Levitt’s character’s legal name is Robin John Blake, and that he inherited the Batcave from Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). Many hoped that Gordon-Levitt would have his spin-off movie or even TV series as Robin. But that’s not happening now.