Jason Todd, Red Hood, arguably the result of Batman's greatest failure and the greatest reinvention of any character in the Batman Mythos. A popular gun-totting vigilante who has been trained by Batman and served as his sidekick and lived as his son. With a wildly different possibility up for grabs in Zack Snyder's DC Cinematic Universe, I take a look at a possible way to adapt the Red Hood story, while honoring Snyder's original ideas.
So as many of you know Zack Snyder has came out to say that the deceased Robin from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was in fact Dick Grayson, as can be read here: Zack Snyder Confirms Joker Killed Dick Grayson Robin in DCEU (screenrant.com)
While we also know that in the Theatrical Cut of Suicide Squad Identifies the deceased Robin as Jason Todd, David Ayer has come to echo the sentiment: Suicide Squad Director Clarifies DCEU’s Robin Rumor - CINEMABLEND Ayer has suggested that it was current DC Film Producer Geoff Johns who altered Ayer's script and caused a bit of a mix-up behind Robin's death.
Considering the information in play, we know that the dead Robin is Dick Grayson, it begs to question: How do you do Jason Todd and The Red Hood?
Well I have my pitch though this is considering the numerous rumors of an HBO Max BATMAN Series starring Ben Affleck might be true. The idea would be a season long arc (estimating between 8-10 episodes).
This version of Jason Todd is currently a Bludhaven Police Officer, in an active relationship with Barbara Gordon. He has retired since Bruce hired a new Robin and He(Jason) found his rage taking hold over him. He left behind his old superhero mantle of: Nightwing. This allowed him to pursue a relationship with a crippled Barbara, who until then operated once as Batgirl and later as Oracle. Jason became a vigilante after his father was killed by Two Face having spent years living on the streets until he was found by Bruce in his late teens. Bruce gave him direction but eventually that turned to cold isolation.
His relationship with Dick was a brotherly, Jason helped initiate the orphaned Dick into the Bat-family and assisted the young acrobat into becoming the sidekick. Over that they bonded and became friends. When Jason left, Dick felt lonely and isolated, allowing Bruce to mold Dick into the perfect Sidekick. When he died, Bruce felt the weight of the failure and Jason felt like Batman had failed. While Batman wasn't able to save Dick, Jason felt Batman had a duty to Kill the Joker and Batman failed too. After the events of BVS Jason saw that Bruce was changed and, to Jason, seemed to have gotten past the death of Dick Grayson.
This would send Jason on a mission of revenge to kill Batman and the Joker, both being guilty of Dick's death. To this end he withdrew the moniker of Nightwing and transformed into the Red Hood, choosing the name to taunt the both of them of a glaring Failure and to mock them both. His plan would be, over the course of the season/series to turn the Rogues on Batman, and have Batman discover who, that close to him, has not only betrayed him but has also dedicated their life to killing him.
This would be an open template for Affleck and Co. to take and turn into something original and dynamic for Red Hood without butchering the story to be unrecognizable. This would allow a Jason Todd adaptation that fit the darker nature of Snyder's DCU as well as give a darker story for Affleck to work with in a series format, promoting a more detective-driven story with strong action beats as well as introducing Barbara Gordon.
It feels like a large departure but it's a pretty simple change to fit the established story mode. This is my take on how to adapt the Red Hood/Jason Todd storyline while fitting it to the pre-established story set out by Zack Snyder.
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