TELEVISION
TITANS TOGETHER!
The DC Universe Titans TV show offers a new look at familiar characters. BY MIKE CECCHINI THE TEEN TITANS HAVE ALREADY been the subject of one of DC’s most-acclaimed comics series: Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans. They headlined two wildly successful animated shows (three, if you count the Titans-adjacent Young Justice). They’re led by the most famous Robin of all, Dick Grayson, a character whose DC history is matched only by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman himself. All that’s been missing from their legacy is a live action interpretation. Titans, a 10-episode series coming to the DC Universe streaming service in October, will fix that. The series will unite Robin (Brenton Thwaites), Raven (Teagan Croft), Starfire (Anna Diop), Beast Boy (Ryan Potter), and other DC characters with an eye on telling more mature, harder-hitting superhero stories than you might find elsewhere. And while there have been
previous attempts to bring Titans to the screen, it was worth waiting to tell the story right, with all of its necessary characters. “There was a time when no one was allowed to put Dick Grayson on TV screens,” Titans executive producer Geoff Johns says. “I remember [writer and executive producer] Akiva [Goldsman] and I were talking and I said ‘we really can’t do Titans without Dick Grayson. We need Robin.’” Fortunately, Titans found its Dick Grayson in 29-year-old Brenton Thwaites. With Titans, Thwaites becomes the first actor to play a live action Robin since Chris O’Donnell hung his cape up after 1997’s Batman and Robin. “He comes with this wisdom and almost haunted nature behind his eyes,” Johns says of Thwaites’ performance. “It just felt like he had lived a long life already… it’s a very hard character to cast
Starfire (Anna Diop) searches for answers.
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because he has to be youthful, yet old for his age.” Thwaites, who admits he wasn’t a big superhero fan growing up, was drawn to the role of Dick Grayson once he was briefed on the plans for Robin in Titans. “For once in my life, it was me auditioning them,” Thwaites says. “When I read up on the character and heard about their vision for the show, I thought, ‘If I would ever do one of these, this is the one to do.’” Perhaps even more than Batman, Dick Grayson is a character defined by his fighting prowess and athleticism. The already fit Thwaites had to make sure his Robin could walk the vigilante walk, brushing up on his boxing and Muay Thai skills and learning how to wield kali sticks. “I wanted to be physically and mentally fit because I knew it would probably
