Considering the huge selection of DC Universe-inspired television shows on the air at present, today’s big announcement from Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment seemed like an inevitability. Nonetheless, Warner Bros.’ TV division and DC’s media division have jointly announced today that they are debuting an exclusive DC-branded digital service in 2018, and launching it with two huge DC-inspired television projects.
One of these projects, naturally, is the previously-announced third season of Young Justice, which was cancelled after two seasons by original distributor, Cartoon Network back in 2013. Warner Bros. and DC also announced today that the third season of Young Justice will be titled ‘Young Justice: Outsiders‘, and will involve a storyline centered on metahuman trafficking, along with a grand-scale genetic arms race that will come to threaten the animated series’ entire universe.
The second new series debuting with DC’s currently unnamed upcoming digital platform will be live-action series, Titans, which is being revived after a failed attempt to launch the show with TNT. The show will center around an adult Dick Grayson who, presumably under his independent superhero identity, Nightwing, comes out of the shadows to lead a fearless new team of superheroes, flanked by Raven, Starfire, and other recognizable Teen Titans members from DC Comics lore. The series will be written by Akiva Goldsman, as with its former TNT pitch, and will also be overseen by DC Films head and Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns, along with DC Television Universe godfather, Greg Berlanti, and Berlanti’s producing partner, Sarah Schechter. The involvement of Berlanti and Schechter will also naturally beg the question as to whether Titans can cross over with Berlanti’s shared DC Television Universe on The CW, which Arrow lead, Stephen Amell hinted was definitely being considered, even when Titans was formerly set up at TNT.
DC’s television slate is currently enormous, across both the primetime live-action and cartoon realms, hence why it was inevitable that Warner Bros. and DC would eventually want to build their own dedicated digital video platform. DC currently has two ongoing cartoon shows aside from the revived Young Justice, with those being Teen Titans Go! and the recently-launched Justice League Action, both of which air on Cartoon Network.
DC also currently has five hour-long dramas inspired by the DC Universe in primetime at present, those being FOX’s Gotham, as well as The CW’s Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, along with half-hour sitcom, Powerless on NBC, and that’s not counting a trio of hour-long primetime dramedies inspired by DC’s graphic novel imprint, Vertigo, namely The CW’s iZombie, FOX’s Lucifer and AMC’s Preacher. DC is also preparing an animated Constantine series for digital network, CW Seed, and is working on some new primetime live-action TV pitches that are hoping to premiere during the 2017-2018 season, namely Black Lightning for The CW and Krypton for Syfy. Another Vertigo-inspired series, Y: The Last Man, is also in development for FX, though has currently stalled.
Keep flying to Eggplante for all major news and updates on DC’s high-profile television plans.