DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio has teased the future of the Batman franchise at Fan Expo Canada, strongly hinting that Dick Grayson may remain as Batman despite the upcoming return of Bruce Wayne. 

DiDio revealed that Grayson was originally going to return to his alias of Nightwing relatively soon, but that the positive reception of the character changed their initial plans. 

"I'm going to give away a little secret; he was going to go back to Nightwing pretty quickly, but that reaction that we've seen kept him in the costume longer," Didio revealed via Comic Book Resources. "We will see him there in the future, he's not coming out any time soon just because Bruce Wayne is coming back." 

Didio also discussed Batman's sidekick Robin, the role of which is currently taken by Bruce Wayne's wayward son Damian. 

"You know what would be cool? A Damian miniseries by Andy Kubert," DiDio said when asked about Damian, whom he described as a true "breakout character". 

The panel confirmed rumours that following Bruce Wayne's return, there will be more than one character in the DC Universe called Batman once the franchise is relaunched at the end of the year.

As far as Dick Grayson goes, doesn't he have a restraining order against Didio, considering the guy's first move as Big Chief at DC was to put a hit out on the guy?

Lastly, "more than one character... called Batman" - eep.   Kinda waters down the franchise doesn't it? We gonna see Red Batman or what here?

Current status: cautiously optimistic, with an emphasis on the cautious.