The Teen Titans are all grown up… well, not ALL grown up, but bigger than the juvenile versions seen on the current hit ‘Teen Titans GO!’ animated series and the prior version that aired on the Cartoon Network from 2003-06. Now this older Teen Titans will be featured in Warner Brother’s next original direct-to-DVD/BluRay movie and the title is, get this, ‘Justice League Vs. Teen Titans’! Yes, it’s teachers against students, with classic Titans villain, demon lord Trigon pulling the strings.
In the film, Robin (Damian Wayne) botches a Justice League mission and is sent to the Titans to learn to control his “volatile behavior.”
The movie features an all-star cast including Jon Bernthal, known for playing Shane on ‘The Walking Dead’ and The Punisher on the upcoming ‘Daredevil’ Season Two. Shemar Moore, who played Cyborg in the two prior ‘Justice League’ movies, reprises the role for this adventure and is joined by Sean Maher, returning as Nightwing, a character he voiced in ‘Son of Batman‘, ‘Batman Vs. Robin’ and new release, ‘Batman: Bad Blood’. Stuart Allan, who voiced Damian Wayne in the same two movies, is also returning.
The rest of the Titans cast is made up of DC newcomers Taissa Farmiga (‘American Horror Story’) as Raven, Jake T. Austin (from ‘The Fosters’) as Blue Beetle, Brandon Soo Hoo (‘From Dusk til Dawn: The Series’) as Beast Boy and Kari Wahlgren (‘Phineas and Ferb’) as Starfire.
The cast of the ‘Justice League’ remains the same; Jason O’Mara as Batman, Jerry O’Connell as Superman, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman and Christopher Gorham as the Flash.
However, even with the returning cast members, it’s unclear if this movie takes place in the current movie continuity, which is based on the New 52 comics. The glaring switch is that Cyborg is a founding and current member of the Justice League in the last two films, but he is pictured here as a member of the Titans. Guess we’ll have to wait until the movie arrives to find out the answer.
The movie is directed by Sam Liu with a script by Bryan Q. Miller and Alan Burnett. James Tucker is the supervising producer and Sam Register is the executive producer. Character design is by vet Phillip Bourassa who has been working on most of Warner Bros./DC’s animated projects beginning with ‘Young Justice’ up to the The CW Seed’s recent ‘Vixen’ web series.
It’s interesting to note that the Titans lineup is the same as the one on the TV series, with obvious influences like Starfire’s skirt and Raven’s overall appearance including her leotard. And while Nightwing looks almost identical to the way he was drawn on ‘Young Justice’, Beast Boy appears more human and less… well, beast.
An older Titans team was slated to star in an adaptation of ‘The Judas Contract’ around 2008, but after ‘Superman: Doomsday’ and ‘Justice League: The New Frontier’ sold weaker than WB had hoped, it was decided that future movies would only focus on more recognizable characters (in other words, Batman).
But after the ‘Teen Titans’ have starred in two #1 rated animated series, it seems the studio is taking a chance and showcasing them again, albeit with Batman and the League along, just in case.
‘Justice League Vs. Teen Titans’ arrives this spring but fans can catch a preview on ‘Batman: Bad Blood’ which is available now.
Are you excited to see this older version of the Teen Titans face off with their mentors? Would you like to see more adventures of the Titans in a more mature style?
Source: TV Insider
