We now know what the next DC movie under James Gunn’s leadership will be. Superman and Supergirl will get their own separate pictures and soon after, so will the Teen Titans. Note that we don’t know if this will be a connected part of Gunn’s DCU or its own separate “Elseworlds” continuity, but the latter is less likely. Ana Nogueira, who was assigned to write the Supergirl script, has also been given script duties for this one.
The Teen Titans property has had a wild ride over the decades and means different things to different people. The original incarnation, introduced in the 1960s, was simply a super-team of sidekicks from more popular superhero books and wasn’t that successful. It was the reinvention of the Titans in the early 80s by Marv Wolfman and George Perez that made people take notice, and the book reached #1 on the sales charts.
This version was loosely adapted by Cartoon Network in 2004 as the original Teen Titans cartoon, which became one of their most successful shows. A super-zany, super-meta distortion of said cartoon, Teen Titans Go, was introduced in 2013 and became even more successful, still running today. Technically this will be the second time the Titans have had a film; the Go variants had their own visit to the big screen in 2018.
This is also not the first live-action take on the Teen Titans there has ever been; a TV series on Max simply called Titans just finished up its four-year run. The decision to cancel it was not made because this movie was brewing; the axe fell before James Gunn even arrived.
There are elements that all version of Teen Titans have in common. Generally, they are about a team of young, inexperienced superheroes who make a go of it from a T-shaped tower built by…somebody. Robin is usually part of the team, but I have to wonder if that will be the case this time as Gunn’s DCU has not even established its own Batman yet.
The Teen Titans movie currently has no place on WB’s release schedule.
