The Boy Wonder is headed to the big screen in the new DC Studios movie Dynamic Duo, which will bring its characters to life with an innovative new type of puppetry. And now, after much speculation, we finally have official word on who will be voicing Dick Grayson. Collider’s Steve Weintraub caught up with DC Studios co-chairman Peter Safran for Clayface and got an update.
Safran discussed the film, the title of which refers to “Jason Todd and Dick Grayson, and I think that there’s a great story to be told here” — they’re Batman’s first two Robins, and their stories diverged in dramatic ways in DC Comics. In the comics, Dick was an orphaned circus performer, while Jason had a hard-scrabble life on the mean streets of Gotham City before Batman took him in. While few details have been revealed about the plot of the film, it is expected that the two will begin as friends before their lives diverge drastically, taking them down different paths. It’s set to hit theaters on September 22, 2028.
Safran confirms that Mason Thames, the star of The Black Phone and How to Train Your Dragon, will voice Grayson, the first boy to don the mask and cape of Robin. Thames turned out to be an eager recruit to the world of DC Comics, Safran told Collider:
“We always talk about wanting volunteers and not recruits to be part of the DCU, to be part of DC Studios, and Mason always wanted to be Dick Grayson. He just did. And he came in, and auditioned the s*** out of it, and was awesome. He’s a wonderful young actor, but boy, did he want this. He was just obsessed. When he came over to the DC offices, he came over with his dad at the time, and we’ve got tons of great archives and stuff in there, and wanted to take a picture of everything and with everything. He’s a fan.”
“We always talk about wanting volunteers and not recruits to be part of the DCU, to be part of DC Studios, and Mason always wanted to be Dick Grayson. He just did. And he came in, and auditioned the s*** out of it, and was awesome. He’s a wonderful young actor, but boy, did he want this. He was just obsessed. When he came over to the DC offices, he came over with his dad at the time, and we’ve got tons of great archives and stuff in there, and wanted to take a picture of everything and with everything. He’s a fan.”
Safran was also effusive about the puppetry that’s being used to bring Dynamic Duo to life, courtesy of Swaybox Studios, the New Orleans-based studio that pioneered it. Swaybox uses a combination of computer imagery, stop-motion animation, and real-time puppetry to create a wholly original new type of animation that will finally be revealed when Dynamic Duo hits theaters in 2028. Swaybox co-founders Arthur Mintz and Theresa Anderson will direct and produce the movie, respectively, and Safran is excited for audiences to see what they’ve created.
“I think that the Swaybox technology is as original today as Pixar was when it did Toy Story. I really think it’s that different from anything that’s come before it. Even though it’s puppets with an overlay of CGI, the fact that it’s shot with real cameras brings a visceral nature to the action in a way that I don’t think animation itself ever can really capture. I am really, really excited for people to witness what Arthur [Mintz] and Theresa [Andersson], who are the Swaybox founders, have come up with. I think it’s really unusual and cool, and it’s a great way to tell a story.”
</blockquote>“I think that the Swaybox technology is as original today as Pixar was when it did Toy Story. I really think it’s that different from anything that’s come before it. Even though it’s puppets with an overlay of CGI, the fact that it’s shot with real cameras brings a visceral nature to the action in a way that I don’t think animation itself ever can really capture. I am really, really excited for people to witness what Arthur [Mintz] and Theresa [Andersson], who are the Swaybox founders, have come up with. I think it’s really unusual and cool, and it’s a great way to tell a story.”
And while it’s currently a time-consuming process, the technology is progressing faster as it goes along. Safran is confident that the studio’s next feature will be a much smoother ride. “I think, like all new technologies, it’ll become faster after you’ve R&D’d the whole process, the whole production stream. I think that it won’t take as long next time around,” said Safran.
Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.
- The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.- You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
real entry requirement here.- The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.- When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.
You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.
- This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.- You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.- The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.- You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.
You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.
- Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.- You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
which is far less lonely than being the only one.- The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.- The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.
You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.
- The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.- You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
not to mention.- This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.- You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.
What Is ‘Clayface’ About?
Based on the classic Batman foe, Clayface stars Tom Rhys Harries (The Gentlemen) as Matt Hagen, an actor whose career has been derailed after suffering disfiguring injuries. Desperate, he turns to scientist Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie, Blink Twice), whose experimental serum might restore his matinée idol looks. For a while, they do…but soon, he finds his whole body becoming monstrously malleable. Directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake), from a script by Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) and Hossein Amini (Drive), Clayface is now playing in theaters.
Dynamic Duo will be released on September 22, 2028. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
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Mason Thames
Dick Grayson (voice)
- <
Logan Kim
Jason Todd (voice)
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Red Hood One (voice)
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Red Hood Two (voice)
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