The Dark Knight Rises
John Blake ’s ( Joseph Gordon - Levitt ) sound name is revealed to be Robin at the termination ofThe Dark Knight Rises — but that does n’t mean heisthe DC Comics variant of Robin or that Blake becomes the costumed Boy Wonder or Nightwing after the plastic film is over . Released in 2012,The Dark Knight Risesis film director Christopher Nolan ’s epic conclusion toThe Dark Knight Trilogyin which Batman ( Christian Bale ) come out of his self - imposed 8 - twelvemonth retirement to saveGothamfrom a young threat , Bane ( Tom Hardy ) .
Along with Selina Kyle , a.k.a . Catwoman ( Anne Hathaway ) , Gordon - Levitt ’s John Blake is one of the new characters introduced inThe Dark Knight come up . A uniformed Gotham Police officer who still believes in the Batman even after the city deemed him a criminal , Blake deduced that Bruce Wayne is the Dark Knight base on a fatal encounter the cop had with the billionaire Corinthian when John was still at St. Swithin ’s , a home for wayward boys funded by the Wayne Foundation . Blake became an ally of Batman in the fight against Bane and the League of Shadows , and he saved the lifetime of Commissioner James Gordon ( Gary Oldman ) , who promote him to detective . At the destruction ofThe Dark Knight move up , Batman saves Gotham from a atomic arm and seemingly buy the farm while fly the turkey out to sea in his aircraft , the Bat . Later , it ’s revealed Bruce Wayne faked Batman ’s last so he could start a novel lifetime in Italy with Selina Kyle , finally detached of the responsibility of being Batman .
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The Dark Knight Risesdropped the revelation thatJohn Blake ’s first name is Robinwhen he received an inheritance from the " later " Bruce Wayne : a duffel udder of spelunking equipment and coordinate to the confidential Batcave beneath Wayne Manor . There , Blake found Batman ’s secret den in a scene echoing Bruce ’s discovery of the bat - screen cave inBatman Begins . The film concludes with Robin John Blake standing atop one of the pillars stop Batman ’s gear as it uprise above the water , postdate by a slice to Negroid and the film ’s main titles : The Dark Knight Rises . The imagery is meant to evoke that Blake is go to be Gotham ’s new Dark Knight , meaning the new Batman — not that Blake will be Robin or Nightwing or a dissimilar costumed image . ( Although Blakecouldadopt a new costumed identity if he opt . )
John Blake does n’t have tobecomeRobin because he alreadyisRobin — that ’s his real name , which writer Jonathan Nolan toldEmpirewas"a wink"to the consultation because"It is a small tough to ideate Robin work in that cosmos , so the idea had to be limited to that laugh at the end . “However , John Blake ’s backstory incorporate elements of three Robins , Dick Grayson , Jason Todd , and Tim Drake . Like Grayson and Todd , Blake is an orphan . John became a constabulary officeholder just like Dick did but he also harbors lifelong anger like Jason . And , like Tim Drake , Blake figured out Bruce Wayne was Batman on his own .
Joseph Gordon - Levitthimself toldCinemablendthat Blake becoming the next Batman was the theme behindThe Dark Knight ascent ' finish :
There ’s a radical that run through all three of [ The Dark Knight ] movies that begins in the first movie , runs through the second movie and it concludes in that import where he says that Batman is more than a man , Batman is a symbol . And so to have another man other than Bruce Wayne kind of becoming Batman at the conclusion of that trilogy , I think that ’s the perfect ending to that story .
Further , Robin John Blake taking on Batman ’s drape does n’t just thematically make sense , in accordance with Nolan ’s grand idea of Batman as a legend bigger than Bruce Wayne , it also nods to DC Comics , where Dick Grayson has assume the theatrical role of Batman on more than one occasion . Jonathan Nolan is also right that the ruby-red , yellow , and green - habilitate Robin would n’t fit in theDark Knightuniverse he andChristopher Nolandesigned . John Blake afterward becoming Nightwing is n’t out of the interrogation but the big ideaThe Dark Knight Risesclosed on was that Robin John Blake would take over for Batman and perpetuate the caption Bruce Wayne created , not necessarily start his own costumed indistinguishability .
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