A Live Action 'Teen Titans' Movie Is In Development At DC Studios
You can rest knowing they’ve got your back, and they’ve got Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow’s writer to help them
It’s the kick in the pants you needed for a superhero movie all about them. DC Studios, under co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, has a Teen Titans movie in development with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow writer Ana Nogueira writing this film as well.
While the initial report does not explicitly say whether the film is set in the main DC Universe, there are several reasons why it makes sense there would be. First off, a vanilla live action Teen Titans movie hasn’t been done before. The second and third reasons take into consideration what we know about the new main DC Universe. One may recall that at the end of January, I asked Gunn about the elasticity of the slate, whether anything had changed within it in the year since the first chapter “Gods and Monsters” was first announced. And he had responded “Some things have shifted around - some projects now earlier, others later, & other new projects are being developed. Like I said from the beginning, we are going to put things in production based on when we have a great script, & nothing else. And luckily we’ve had some great scripts take us by surprise.” This has to be one of the new projects being developed.
The second reason? Brave and the Bold, the first Batman solo film for the universe, sees this iteration of Bruce already dealing with his son Damian Wayne, which in modern times is his fourth Robin at least, with Jason Todd and Tim Drake in between. It was great that Batman had a Robin again, but the perceived aversion to live action Dick Grayson probably made many leery. However, making a Teen Titans movie would likely end that aversion after 30 or so years since Batman & Robin, as Grayson was the Robin that was a founding member of the original team in the comics. Him already being in the Titans would create ingrained connective tissue after having already moved past Batman in his own hero life without having necessarily become Nightwing yet.
When the Teen Titans debuted in the 1960s, it was Grayson Robin, Wally West (the white one was the only one to exist at the time) as Kid Flash, and Aqualad, being joined by Donna Troy aka Wonder Girl before getting their own team-titled comic. Over the years there’d be many members, but it was Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s relaunch in 1980, The New Teen Titans, which reintroduced Beast Boy and introduced Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven that truly made the team popular, and eventually outgrew being Teen Titans. So much that much of this team, was adapted for the 2003 animated series on Cartoon Network. Only Kid Flash and Wonder Girl were dropped, and only the latter left out entirely. After 5 seasons and 65 episodes in 2.5 years, the world was brought back for New Teen Titans shorts on CN’s DC Nation block, which then prompted the creation of Teen Titans Go!, a more comedic series with the same cast and retains design inspiration from the 2003 series. It is still running nearly 11 years since its 2013 premiere and has accrued nearly 400 episodes aired and four movies, including 2018’s theatrical Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. A live-action Titans series ran for four seasons from 2018 to 2023, the first two on DC Universe and the last two on (HBO) Max.
The third reason is if Cyborg is made a Titan, it will follow the comics’ walking back of having made him a member of the Justice League in the New 52 era, something that was adapted for the previous film continuity, the DC Extended Universe. For a while it felt as if Teen Titans Go! was the only thing keeping Cyborg tied to the Titans. In addition, with this new continuity from new studio heads, it allows them to start fresh with the character after Ray Fisher accused Joss Whedon of abusive and unprofessional behavior and DC Films head Walter Hamada of enabling it. New actor hired by new producers for a new continuity, a clean break without any bad blood.
Nogueira was revealed to be hired to write Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in November, having come over from writing a DCEU Supergirl movie script, under a new DC overall deal this Teen Titans assignment is very likely part of. In the time since her hiring was made known, Milly Alcock was cast as Supergirl, but that’s been the only personnel addition announced in that time, as the search for a director continues. She is a writer, actress and playwright whose credits include a stint on The Vampire Diaries, while having acting credits that include The Michael J. Fox Show and The Blacklist, and Hightown. Her play Which Way to the Stage had an off-Broadway debut in 2022, and at the time of the announcement was working on an adaptation for Warner Bros. of Alice Sola Kim’s short story Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Vulture