Punching back into action, “Nightwing Returns,” Grand Junction’s highest IMDb rated and now longest running web series, finished its second season this February.
The cast and crew held a premiere event at Edgewater Brewery on Feb. 24, which was a chance to watch the second season and to meet the stars and producers of the series. The premiere got off to a slow start, but by the time the hosts started the run of the main feature, there were around three dozen people eating, drinking and laughing in the back room of Edgewater Brewery.
“I’ve always been a big Batman and Nightwing fan, and I started watching some fan films that were already on the internet at the time, and I just had this thought: ‘I want to do something like that’,” said creator and star Keenan Grumley on how the show got started.
“Nightwing Returns” has undergone a number of changes since the first season, with few of the original cast returning for one reason or another. However, the production quality and script improved from the first season, as did the fight choreography and the filming locations.
“One of the things we improved was definitely the script writing,” said Grumley. “We definitely did it more professionally the second time around… In season two I think we went through two script edits, like rewrites almost, to make it more interesting.”
The second season follows Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Nightwing, through his battle with the Court of Owls, a mysterious organization that’s out for blood. The cast was also able to get access to more varied locations for season two filming, which allowed for confrontations with more villains, including the Penguin and the head of the Falcone family.
“We were very fortunate to get several locations that were very thematically beautiful and added to the storytelling,” said season two director Preston Manee.
Another change from season one was a switch in directors, as the season one director had moved out of state and could no longer participate. The mantle was handed over to Manee, an experienced director who’s worked in production and television for nearly a decade and a half.
“When Keenan approached me with the idea to bring about the second season, I was more than thrilled to jump onboard,” said Manee. “The production overall has grown in size and scope.”
Another thing Manee brought to the table was the equipment he had collected over his time in the industry.
“We worked with a Canon T3i DSLR camera with a variety of lenses. We recorded all of the audio on a Zoom H4n audio recorder device, and we put that through a boom mike and several lavalier mics to acquire the sound that we needed,” said Manee. “And then, lighting, we had so many people donate lighting, and we worked a lot with natural lighting.”
When asked about a third season, both Grumley and Manee seemed to think it might be in the cards.
“I would definitely like to see it happen. I’m currently working on an outline for it,” said Grumley, “I don’t think season two is where I wanted it to end, season three would be a good way to wrap it all up.”
“There has been talk of a third season,” said Manee. “We’re really focused on making sure that season two gets the proper attention that it deserves right now, but with a third season being rumored I wouldn’t put it past anyone to bring that to fruition.”
After the showing of the second season, the two main stars and the director sat down to answer questions. They talked about their characters and how they got into the spirit of the scene, their stunts, the changes to the script, what characters they’d like to see come onto the series next and also mentioned a couple of shout outs to guest stars for their performances.
“There’s so much telling of the Batman story,” said Manee, “but we never really get to focus on his ward Robin and how he becomes Nightwing.”
“Nightwing Returns” season one is available on the Nightwing Returns: The Fan Series YouTube page. Season two released on the same YouTube page on Friday, March 8.
