The CW will produce a pilot for a series called The Graysons, which features Batman's sidekick Robin -- a.k.a. Dick Grayson -- before he started fighting crime.

The potential series is being prepped as a successor to Smallville, which is currently in its eighth and possibly final season.

The official backstory of Dick in the comics -- and seen in Batman Forever -- is that he was a member of a family of circus performers, whose parents died after their trapeze equipment was sabotaged. However, producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson -- the current showrunners of Smallville -- have come up with a new take on the character, according to Variety.

The series would seem to have a built-in limitation on how long it could run. While Clark Kent became Superman in his late twenties, thus providing plenty of wiggle room for a prequel series that began with him in high school, Dick becomes Robin when he's only a teenager, meaning he would have to start out the series reasonably younger if it hopes to run for a few years.

This isn't the first time Batman's world has been mined for a non-Batman TV show; the WB's short-lived 2002 series Birds of Prey featured a team of female superheroes who fought crime in Gotham after Batman disappeared.

Director McG (Terminator Salvation, NBC's Chuck) will also exec-produce the series.

On the movie front, Christian Bale recently said that he never wants to be in a Batman movie that includes Robin, so stop thinking about any kind of crossover right now. ❏