Teen Titans is an American animated superhero comedy drama television series created by Glen Murakami, who developed the series with David Slack and Sam Register for Cartoon Network and Kids' WB. Based on the DC Comics superhero team Teen Titans, the series follows the adventures of teenage superheroes, Robin (Scott Menville), Starfire (Hynden Walch), Cyborg (Khary Payton), Raven (Tara Strong), and Beast Boy (Greg Cipes) and their war against crime in Jump City in addition to personal struggles with adolescence.
It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics (for season 5). The show premiered on Cartoon Network on July 19, 2003; its first two seasons also aired on Kids' WB. Initially, only four seasons were planned, but the popularity of the series led to Cartoon Network ordering a fifth season. The final half-hour episode of the show, "Things Change", aired on January 16, 2006; it was later followed by a TV movie, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, that premiered on September 15 the same year, serving as the series finale.
During its run, the series was nominated for three Annie Awards and one Motion Picture Sound Editors Award. Spin-off media included comics, DVD releases, video games, music albums, and collectible toys. In 2013, the show spawned a reboot, titled Teen Titans Go!, which received a theatrical film that was released on July 27, 2018, titled Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. In 2019, a crossover film with Teen Titans Go! was released, titled Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. It features the first appearance of the original series characters after 13 years.
Premise
Teen Titans is based primarily on stories by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez from the 1980s, featuring characters, storylines, and concepts introduced during the run, and incorporating a similar group of members. The five main members of the eponymous team in the series are Robin (Scott Menville), the intelligent and capable leader of the Teen Titans; Starfire (Hynden Walch), a quirky, curious alien princess from the planet Tamaran; Cyborg (Khary Payton), a cyborg armed with extraordinary strength and technological prowess; Raven (Tara Strong), a stoic girl from the parallel world Azarath who draws upon dark energy and psionic abilities; and Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), a good-natured joker who can transform into various animals. They are situated in Titans Tower, a large T-shaped building featuring living quarters, a command center, and a variety of training facilities on an island just offshore from the West Coast metropolis of Jump City. The team deals with all manner of criminal activity and threats to the city, while dealing with their own struggles with adolescence, their mutual friendships, and their limitations.
The first season focuses on the Teen Titans' introduction to the mysterious supervillain Slade (Ron Perlman), who seeks to turn Robin into his apprentice. The second season is an adaptation of "The Judas Contract" storyline where new hero Terra (Ashley Johnson) joins the team while secretly plotting against them with Slade. The third season depicts Cyborg's conflict with H.I.V.E. and their leader Brother Blood (John DiMaggio), prompting Cyborg to form the superhero team Titans East with Aqualad (Wil Wheaton), Speedy (Mike Erwin), Bumblebee (T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh), and Más y Menos (Freddy Rodriguez). In the fourth season, Raven finds herself unwillingly involved in a plot that threatens the existence of the world when her demon father Trigon (Kevin Michael Richardson) seeks to enslave the Earth. For the fifth season, the Teen Titans join forces with several other heroes to combat the Brotherhood of Evil, Beast Boy's longtime adversaries, and their army of villains.
Episodes
Cast and characters Main
Scott Menville as Robin Hynden Walch as Starfire Khary Payton as Cyborg Tara Strong as Raven Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
Secret identities
Unlike most other superhero television series, the Teen Titans characters maintain their superhero identities at all times, with any hints at the concept of an alter ego or secret identity rarely explored.
The secret identity of Robin, an alias assumed by multiple characters in the comics, is never explicitly revealed in the series, but several hints are provided to suggest he is Dick Grayson, the original Robin and founding member of the Teen Titans: Robin's alternate dimensional counterpart Larry in the episode "Fractured" is named Nosyarg Kcid, and (a caption draws attention to the fact that) this is Dick Grayson spelled backwards. Robin's future counterpart in the episode "How Long Is Forever?" has taken on the identity of Nightwing, Grayson's second superhero alias. The main romance in the show is Robin's relationship with Starfire, whom Grayson would romance in the comics. In the episode X, wherein an antagonist steals an alias Robin created (when impersonating a supervillain) has Beast Boy speculate that the impostor is Jason Todd, who replaced Dick Grayson as Robin (in the comics). A glimpse into Robin's consciousness by Raven in the episode "Haunted" shows the memory of two acrobats falling from a trapeze, a reference to the death of Grayson's acrobat parents being the catalyst for him becoming Robin. Further connections to the Batman mythos include two references in the episode "The Apprentice", when Robin responds to a suggestion by the villain Slade that he "might be like a father to [him]" with "I already have a father" (which transitions to a shot of flying bats) and a fight scene on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises. Likewise, in the episode The Quest, Robin responds to his Samurai antagonist telling him he’s been trained by the best by saying “so have I.”
The Teen Titans Go! episode "Permanent Record" would satirize the mystery of Robin's identity by explicitly giving his name as "Robin v.3: Tim Drake" (the third Robin), with "Dick Grayson" and "Jason Todd" (the second Robin) being written over. Subsequent episodes, however, establish him as Dick Grayson through vague flashbacks to his boyhood at Haley Circus.
In the comics, Starfire and Raven are the real names of their respective characters. While the show does not specify this with the latter, the former acknowledges "Starfire" as the English translation of her name in the season 5 episode "Go!" and her native name, Koriand'r, is used in the season 3 episode "Betrothed". The comic versions of these characters, however, also use the civilian aliases Kory Anders and Rachel Roth, which are not used on the show.
The policy of not mentioning the characters' secret identities would be broken in the season 5 premiere "Homecoming" when Elasti-Girl refers to Beast Boy by his real name, Garfield. Cyborg's real name in the comics, Victor Stone, is referenced in the season 3 premiere "Deception" when he uses "Stone" as an undercover alias, although the series does not identify this as his real name.
Production Soundtrack The series is known for featuring both an English and Japanese version of its title theme song, created by Andy Sturmer and performed by Japanese band Puffy AmiYumi. The title theme used in the regions where the show was broadcast varied; some would play only one version, while Japan - and the English language video editions - would use both, according to the respective episode's plot theme: the English lyrics for more serious stories, and the Japanese version for more comedic tones.
The first-season episode "Mad Mod" also featured another song by Puffy AmiYumi, "K2G". In the feature-length film Trouble in Tokyo, a literal translation of the Japanese song, whose actual lyrics differ greatly from its English counterpart, is performed for comedic effect.
Discontinuation and proposed rebranding In mid-November 2005, TitansTower.com reported that prospects for a sixth season were unlikely, and fans were urged to express their support for the show to Cartoon Network. Several days after this initial posting, the fifth season was announced to be the last. Series story editor Rob Hoegee and series director Heather Maxwell stated that Cartoon Network chose not to renew the show, and that the ending to the fifth season was written with the awareness that it would probably be the series finale, thus there were never any plans for a sixth season, otherwise they would not have ended the fifth season the way they did with "Things Change".
As early as August 2006, there were reports that Teen Titans would undergo a possible rebranding, with producer Glen Murakami citing the 1995 hiatus of Batman: The Animated Series, which was retooled in 1997 as The New Batman Adventures. According to Hoegee, this had been suggested by Sam Register, producer of the series, after he and producer David Slack had left the show, leaving Murakami and story editor and writer Amy Wolfram to develop and put together a pitch for the rebrand that would have expanded the team with the characters introduced in the fifth season, and bring in a brand new villain who had ties to some classic Titans villains from the comics. Murakami also expressed interest in using Phobia, Mister Twister, and Ravager. When they had sent the pitch in, it was ultimately declined. Wil Wheaton (Aqualad's voice actor) revealed that new Warner Bros. Feature Animation executives made the decision to not renew the show based on the repitch. Slack stated that he was given different reasons for not renewing the show; either the ratings dropped after the "scary" season 4, or Mattel wanted the show dead because Bandai had the show's toy deal. Mattel was named as "master toy licensee" in 2006 by Cartoon Network.
After the series finale, Warner Bros. Animation released a feature film titled Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con and was shown on Cartoon Network first on September 15, 2006, and releasing on DVD on February 6, 2007.
In April 2021, ComicBookMovie.com founder Nate Best reported acquiring pitch documents for the rebrand and shared details in an exclusive article. According to Best, the rebrand would have been titled New Teen Titans, and would have featured a rotating cast rather than focusing on the original five members. Some of these proposed teamups included:
Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, and Kid Flash (a tribute to the original Titans from the comic book) Kid Flash, Más y Menos Wildebeest, Jericho, and Gnarrk Hot Spot, Killowat, and Red Star Raven, Starfire, Kole, Argent, Bumblebee, and Pantha (in a story titled "Truth or Dare")
The show was slated to introduce new villains, notably one named "Athena" who had the Midas touch and was accompanied by an ever-changing roster of superpowered suiters as well as a posse of robot girls, and other groups of teenagers as throwbacks to previous villains such as Mad Mod and Control Freak. The pitch documents included information on a holiday episode, as well as a plotline in which Herald would unknowingly create a rift in "Dimension X", allowing a microscopic, self-replicating creature to travel to Earth. According to series artist Derrick J. Wyatt, this would have tied back to the unnamed creature from the series finale "Things Change". Series artist Brianne Drouhard has also stated doing visual development on a character that was not mentioned in the reporting.
Crossover with Teen Titans Go! A mid-credits scene from Teen Titans Go! To the Movies featured the 2003 Titans' return, in which Robin states they have "found a way back".
In 2019, Warner Bros. released a crossover film featuring the Titans from both shows, titled Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, followed by a digital release on September 24 and a DVD and Blu-ray release on October 15. The events of the film take place during the fifth season of Teen Titans Go!.
Legacy