Chris McKay wasn’t joking when he spoke about casting the net wide to find the actor to play the lead role in his DC superhero film Nightwing. After he made statements referring to Nightwing casting as a big size operation, McKay has now declared his intentions to conduct open auditions for the prized role of Dick Grayson aka Nightwing, the adult version of Batman’s iconic Boy Wonder sidekick called Robin.
McKay is riding on his success with The LEGO Batman Movie and is now heading the Nightwingfilm with the assistance of The Accountant screenwriter Bill Dubuque. Film’s pre-production activities are underway, and McKay has praised the director helmed film production style and the “world-class filmmakers” that have been associated with the studio. Some say that McKay’s Nightwing film might help resurrect the DCEU which is plagued by bad reviews and unimpressive box office numbers after the release of Justice League.
Now McKay posted on his Twitter account and clarified that he would search high and low for the ideal actor to star in his Nightwing film. He will conduct open auditions but also welcomes actors to approach an agent or a manager if they are serious about it:
Any unknown faces that audition for the role will face strong competition from established actors. The renowned names linked to this character so far are Dave Franco, Jared Padalecki, Steven R McQueen, Drake Bell, Finn Wittrock, Dacre Montgomery, Dev Patel, Zac Efron and Steven Yeun. Just as McKay mentioned, if you jump into the fray without any manager then you might have success chances akin to Vegas gaming machines.
The age band of the actors is not clear. As of now, none outside the WB Pictures circle is clear about the timeline of Dick Grayson in McKay and Dubuque’s script. Whoever gets the role, irrespective of the age will have to be ready for a “grueling” shoot featuring a great deal of “real stunt work.”
Nightwing wasn’t listed on the DCEU slate at SDCC because McKay wants to take time to cast, write and shoot the film in the best possible manner. He doesn’t want to rush to meet a timeline, and that’s quite admirable for a modern-day filmmaker. We just hope that McKay’s long process will result in a superb cinematic outing that we expect from Nightwing.
