Almost a decade ago, Father Mike Schmitz said he nearly played Robin in Batman Forever—and the internet is rediscovering the story all over again.
It sounds kind of like a rumor made for social media: before becoming one of the world’s most recognizable Catholic priests, Father Mike Schmitz says he auditioned for Robin in the 1995 superhero film Batman Forever.
The story, originally published by ChurchPOP in January 2017, is circulating widely online again in 2026. It tells of how Father Mike publicly recounted at FOCUS’s SEEK conference in 2017 that he had advanced deep into auditions for the role:
“I was almost cast as Robin in Batman Forever. I made it to the final cut of the auditions,” he told the audience.
The role of Dick Grayson/Robin ultimately went to Chris O’Donnell, opposite Val Kilmer’s Batman. Batman Forever was released in 1995 and also starred Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman.
But Fr. Mike’s Hollywood near-miss did not stop with Gotham City.
According to his retelling, the positive audition led casting staff to ask whether he would read for another film then in development: Hackers, the 1995 cyber-thriller that became a cult favorite.
“The audition went really well, so after I auditioned for Robin,
