Original Robin Burt Ward to appear on Batwoman’s Arrowverse crossover episode

Batwoman is making it perfectly clear that The CW has an effective heir-apparent in the department of gritty, gloomy, ass-kicking vigilante shows, with the imminent exit of Arrow from the network lineup. Interestingly, among the tidbits of news produced by the show’s San Diego Comic-Con panel today was a casting reveal that – for more reasons than one – will have classic Batman fans exclaiming “holy!”

Burt Ward, the man who, with legendary zeal, played Robin opposite Adam West’s Caped Crusader in the 1966-1968 Batman television series, is heading to Batwoman for an appearance on the show’s episode contribution to this fall’s "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event. The news arrived by way of producer Caroline Dries during the panel.

While no details were revealed about Ward's role in the episode, one would be hard-pressed to ignore another recent development for the Arrowverse’s "Crisis on Infinite Earths," with yesterday’s shocking announcement that Brandon Routh — who’s been playing Ray Palmer/The Atom on Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow — will suit up once again to reprise his claim-to-fame role as the Man of Steel himself, Superman, as he did in director Bryan Singer’s 2006 reboot movie, Superman Returns. Perhaps Ward could be set for something similar?

Indeed, with "Crisis on Infinite Earths" set to adapt DC Comics’ classic, industry-transforming, continuity-codifying 1985 crossover event of the same name, which saw the involvement of decade’s worth of multiple versions of DC’s heroes across the Multiverse, it’s quite reasonable to assume that Ward's Batwoman appearance could be, quite literally, a role reprisal that's over half-a-century in the making, this time as the older version of Dick Grayson/Robin, hailing from the Earth in which the Batman ’66 series takes place.

While Ward wasn’t the first (or even second) actor to portray Batman’s Boy Wonder sidekick in live-action form — that distinction belongs to Douglas Croft in the 1943 Batman serial (and Johnny Duncan in the 1949 version) — his 1960s-era portrayal as the buoyant, fist-swinging, pun-slinging perspicaciously-quick solver of riddles, was, nevertheless, the most iconic version; a fact that remains the case to this day, despite being succeeded in later decades by Chris O’Donnell in 1995's Batman Forever and 1997's Batman & Robin, then Joseph Gordon Levitt (technically) in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, and currently by Brenton Thwaites on DC Universe’s Titans.

Of course, Ward’s Batwoman role will certainly leave fans missing Batman actor Adam West, who passed away back in June of 2017, and wondering what might have been.

The CW’s "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover still has no schedule set, but we do know that Batwoman will premiere on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 8 p.m.

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