The Batman's Red Hood Reference May Be The Movie's Best Future Tease

The Batman's red hood reference, which comes in the form of Mayor Mitchell's son's Halloween costume, could be a future tease to the Red Hood.

A reference to Red Hood in The Batman may be the movie’s best future tease. The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson in the titular role, opens with a boy dressed in a red ninja costume, complete with a “red hood”, who is seen play-fighting with his father on Halloween night, just before he leaves to go trick-r-treating. The boy in question is Mayor Mitchell’s son (played by Archie Barnes), who plays an integral part in the movie’s thematic bridge, as he loses his father on that very night when he’s murdered by The Riddler. Batman visits the crime scene later that night, getting a full view of the Mayor’s murder and knowing full well what the deceased man’s son has lost.

The Mayor’s son shows up in three major sequences of the film, including the opening where he’s wearing the “red hood“, as well as his father’s funeral at the church and again during The Batman‘s finale at Gotham Square Garden. At his father’s funeral, Bruce Wayne shows up to pay his respects, and maintains a watchful eye on the boy, as Bruce can relate to his loss. His sympathetic viewpoint, having lost his own parents to murder, positions Bruce in a unique place, as it not only shows his sympathy, but also his guilt and turmoil over having failed the boy. After all, his entire mission as Batman was to prevent future children from suffering the same kind of loss he suffered.

This is a cornerstone to Bruce Wayne as a character, specifically in the comics. When Dick Grayson’s parents are killed during a circus performance, Grayson is left an orphan. Bruce adopts the boy, partly out of sympathy and partly out of guilt, eventually grooming him to become his crime-fighting partner, known as Robin. The Robin mantle would be passed on from generation to generation, the second Robin being Jason Todd, who is eventually killed by the Joker, then resurrected by a Lazarus Pit, taking on The Joker’s former persona of Red Hood, this time as a gun-toting vigilante. It’s entirely possible that the mayor’s son could be that future Robin, with the red ninja costume being an early premonition of his final fate. Of course, there’s also the comic-book canon of Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing, so it will be curious to see which direction Reeves goes if the boy is, indeed, meant to become the first Robin of his saga.

How Mayor Mitchell’s Son Could Become The Red Hood In Reeves’ Batman Universe

This level of foreshadowing is entirely possible, as Reeves has shown that he’s taking big and small leaps with character origins in his new Bat-Verse, some of which are quite literal, while others deviate tremendously from the source material. With that in mind, there’s potential that Mayor Mitchell’s son is being set up as the first Robin of his Bat-Verse. The boy remains unnamed throughout the film, meaning there are infinite possibilities to his actual name, which could easily be any number of established Robin identities. Regardless of the name, the potential for the mayor’s son being the first Robin is very good, as he’s firmly established as a boy broken, deceived by the system, and potentially hungry for vengeance over his father’s death. Bruce Wayne, feeling the pangs of sympathy and guilt, could easily swoop in to adopt the boy, both to provide a better life, but also an avenue toward the vengeance he seeks, now under the guise of Batman’s newly reconfigured mission by the end of the film.

Given that the Red Hood aspect is shown early in the film, it could easily be laying tracks for the tragic journey of the boy from sidekick crime-fighter to resurrected cold-hearted vigilante, if it is, in fact, Reeves’ intent to make him the first Boy Wonder in his Bat-Verse. It would ultimately be a journey that would take place in a third, or perhaps fourth, Batman film in Reeve’s saga, as it would be far too early to become Red Hood, at least as he’s portrayed in comic form, in the first sequel to The Batman. However, it’s possible that the red ninja costume is entirely on purpose and meant to be the first breadcrumb in that journey for the boy.