Batman has always been an integral part of the DC film slate anytime there has been one in history. While Bruce Wayne will continue to be a major aspect of the new James Gunn and Peter Safran slate for chapter one of the new DCU, he won’t be coming alone.
It has been announced that one of the major films in the new DCU slate will be entitled The Brave and the Bold, and it will be based on a comic book run that featured Bruce Wayne as Batman teaming with his long-lost son Damian Wayne as a new Robin. While other Robin characters have been presented on the big screen, usually Dick Grayson, this is a new character to the big screen, and it will be interesting to see who plays him for DC.
5 Aidan Gallagher
It will be hugely difficult to find an actor young enough to play Damian Wayne with the level of on-screen time and skills required to be as snarky and violent as Wayne is, having been trained in vicious and lethal arts by his mother and the League of Assassins prior to eventually meeting his father at last.
Aidan Gallagher has got a huge volume of experience in a similar scenario from a very young age on The Umbrella Academy. Playing Number Five, an experienced and dangerous superhero in his own young self’s body, gave him a lot of experience playing deadly, murderous, and sadistic, as well as snarky and charismatic. All of this and to boot, he’s still only 19 years old and could believably play as young as fourteen for DC as they begin their universe with a fairly fresh take on an older, grizzled Batman and his young son.
4 Roman Griffin Davis
One of the few child actors available today who is still young enough to get away with playing an age similar to Damian Wayne’s in the comic run that The Brave And The Bold is based on, who also has experience playing a leading role in a major motion picture. Roman Griffin Davis played the lead role in Jojo Rabbit when he was only eleven.
Now he is fifteen and still young enough to be considered for this film. Additionally, the anger and violence of his youthful character in Jojo Rabbit would be a great inspiration for him in bringing to life the dangerous and uncertain character of Damian. That role is one filled with hatred, but DC may want a certain humor to it as well. His character will likely talk back a lot to his father, and Roman may be perfect for managing that with his previous experience.
3 Iain Armitage
If DC wanted a similarly experienced actor who managed to get his experience at an even younger age than Gallagher, Iain Armitage has got just that in playing Young Sheldon on the hit sitcom. Despite not having as much action experience or violent undertones to the characters he has already played, Armitage has played a leading role with as much pressure on it as The Brave And The Bold will have.
Armitage has had to play a character with intelligence beyond his years, and while it will be a shift for him to play a brutal character like the young Damian Wayne, he has time to grow into the role as The Brave And The Bold isn’t scheduled to begin filming for years yet, and at the age of fourteen currently, he could bring an experience to the role while playing as young as twelve or thirteen.
2 Mason Thomas
This fifteen-year-old is another who has recent big screen experience as the lead of The Black Phone in 2022. While that horror movie was tense and the youthful lead was focused purely on escaping a kidnapping predicament, he also managed to provide an intelligent performance that made it easy to believe he could play a huge character like Damian Wayne.
Thomas doesn’t have a lot of experience beyond his major role in The Black Phone, but it gives a good sign of how an actor will perform on the similarly massive stage of a comic book blockbuster like The Brave And The Bold. DC may want to cast an unknown for this particular role, but if they begin by looking at known quantities then they’ll quickly find Mason Thomas coming across their radar.
1 David Mazouz
It could be a fascinating and tongue-in-cheek reference to Gotham if David Mazouz, who already played the young Bruce Wayne on that show, became the DCU Damian Wayne. Playing the son of the character he already took on would be a fascinating call-back to how Gotham presented Bruce Wayne violently, similarly to how Damian Wayne is usually shown to be.
This father/son story could be perfected by showcasing the youth of Damian in contrast with the tired age of Bruce. David Mazouz is 21 currently, so it would be a slightly older Damian that he plays, but currently, there isn’t much word on what age DC is looking for in their Damian for The Brave And The Bold. While it seems unlikely that Mazouz will be brought back to DC in such a direct fashion, it definitely can’t be ruled out as an intriguing option.