Although DC Comics has had a lot of success with live action TV shows over the last couple years, there is one project that has been most elusive: Titans, based on the Teen Titans superhero team. After it was first announced to be in development for cable network TNT in late 2014, news has been light on its development, and as time passed, the chances of it being made grew less and less likely. Sixteen months after it was first revealed, it’s now official: Titans is not moving forward.
This morning at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, TNT president Kevin Reilly confirmed that Titans won’t be happening on that network. Here were Reilly’s words (via TV Line) during the presentation:
It is not [still in development]. We just decided it wasn’t quite where we wanted to go.
The only official information provided about Titans was that it would have starred Dick Grayson (either still in the Robin guise or as Nightwing), Starfire and Raven, and all the characters would have been in their 20s. Akiva Goldsman and Marc Haimes were set to write the pilot, and DC’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns said in December 2014 that the Titans pilot would shoot in 2015, though obviously that didn’t happen. It was later reported that Titans might also feature Barbara Gordon, Hawk and Dove, but the last official update we got about the show was that it was still in development for a possible 2016 release. Now those plans have been scrapped.
While there’s always the slightest of chances the show could be shopped around to another network, that seems highly unlikely, especially since the network it would feel most home at would be The CW, and that channel is already packed with Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, not to mention the Vertigo adaptation iZombie. If fans want to get their fill of the Teen Titans on TV, they’ll have to stick to the animated world with the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon and the current, comedy-charged Teen Titans Go!
While Titans has faded as a possibility, fans can still see some of the team’s more famous members in live action. Roy Harper was a key character on Arrow for three seasons and will be returning later in Season 4. Meanwhile on The Flash, Wally West is now a main character after being introduced last month. Jumping from the small screen to the big screen, Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg, will be seen in the DC Extended Universe starting next month with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and will later feature in his own movie. However, in this universe he will be a founding member of the Justice League, keeping in line with his New 52 background. Dick Grayson is also rumored to make his DCEU debut in the new Batman solo movie.
Now that the Teen Titans’ TV prospects have been shot down, one wonders if DC and Warner Bros. might consider adapting the team for the movies. After all, it’s not like the Justice League has to be only superhero team in the DCEU. Let us know if you would like to see Teen Titans on the big screen in the comments below.
