Teen Titans

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The series is based primarily on stories by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez from the 1980s. The first season focuses on the Teen Titans' introduction to the mysterious supervillain Slade, who seeks to turn Robin into his apprentice. The second season adapts 'The Judas Contract' storyline, where new hero Terra joins the team while secretly plotting against them with Slade. The third season depicts Cyborg's conflict with H.I.V.E. and their leader Brother Blood; Brother Blood forms a rival team called Titans East, consisting of Aqualad, Speedy, Bumblebee, and Más y Menos. Cyborg temporarily joins Titans East (undercover), but Robin never does. In the fourth season, Raven finds herself unwillingly involved in a plot that threatens the existence of the world when her demon father Trigon seeks to enslave the Earth. For the fifth season, the Teen Titans join forces with several other heroes to combat the Brotherhood of Evil and their army of villains.

In Their Own Story

The final half-hour episode of the show, 'Things Change', aired on January 16, 2006. It was later followed by a TV movie, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, that premiered on September 15 the same year, serving as the series finale. A 15-minute episode titled 'The Lost Episode' was released as part of an online promotional campaign by Post Consumer Brands in January 2005. In 2019, a crossover film with Teen Titans Go! was released, titled Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. It features the first appearance of the original series characters after 13 years.

Reader's Guide

The five main members of the eponymous team in the series are Robin (Scott Menville), the intelligent and capable leader of the Teen Titans; Starfire (Hynden Walch), a quirky, curious alien princess from the planet Tamaran; Cyborg (Khary Payton), a cyborg armed with extraordinary strength and technological prowess; Raven (Tara Strong), a stoic girl from the parallel world Azarath who draws upon dark energy and psionic abilities; and Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), a good-natured joker who can transform into various animals. They are situated in Titans Tower, a large T-shaped building featuring living quarters, a command center, and a variety of training facilities on an island just offshore from the West Coast metropolis of Jump City. The team deals with all manner of criminal activity and threats to the city, while dealing with their own struggles with adolescence, their mutual friendships, and their limitations. Unlike most other superhero television series, the Teen Titans characters maintain their superhero identities at all times, with any hints at the concept of an alter ego or secret identity rarely explored.

Did You Know?

• The series is known for featuring both an English and Japanese version of its title theme song, created by Andy Sturmer and performed by Japanese band Puffy AmiYumi.
• The first-season episode 'Mad Mod' featured another song by Puffy AmiYumi, 'K2G'.
• In the feature-length film Trouble in Tokyo, a literal translation of the Japanese song, whose actual lyrics differ greatly from its English counterpart, is performed for comedic effect.
• The policy of not mentioning the characters' secret identities was broken in season 5's 'Homecoming' when Elasti-Girl calls Beast Boy 'Gar'.
• Cyborg's real name in the comics, Victor Stone, is referenced in the season 3 premiere 'Deception' when he uses 'Stone' as an undercover alias.

Origins and Early Publication

The series was created by Glen Murakami, who developed the series with David Slack and Sam Register. Based on the DC Comics superhero team Teen Titans, it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and DC Comics (for season 5). The show premiered on Cartoon Network on July 19, 2003; its first two seasons also aired on Kids' WB. Initially, only four seasons were planned, but the popularity of the series led to Cartoon Network ordering a fifth season.

Life Among the Teen Titans

Each season contains a distinct story arc that is centered on a specific Titan on the team. Starfire is the only individual member who was part of the original roster to not have a season focused on her. The secret identity of Robin, an alias assumed by multiple characters in the comics, is never explicitly revealed in the series, but several hints are provided to suggest he is Dick Grayson, the original Robin and founding member of the Teen Titans. These hints include: his alternate dimensional counterpart Larry in the episode 'Fractured' is named Nosyarg Kcid—Dick Grayson spelled backwards; his future counterpart in the episode 'How Long Is Forever?' has taken on the identity of Nightwing, Grayson's second superhero alias; and a glimpse into Robin's consciousness by Raven in the episode 'Haunted' shows the memory of two acrobats falling from a trapeze, a reference to the death of Grayson's acrobat parents.

Crisis Events and Team Evolutions

In mid-November 2005, TitansTower.com reported that prospects for a sixth season were unlikely. Several days after this initial posting, the fifth season was announced to be the last. Series story editor Rob Hoegee and series director Heather Maxwell stated that Cartoon Network chose not to renew the show, and that the ending to the fifth season was written with the awareness that it would probably be the series finale, thus there were never any plans for a sixth season. As early as August 2006, there were reports that Teen Titans would undergo a possible rebranding, with producer Glen Murakami citing the 1995 hiatus of Batman: The Animated Series, which was retooled in 1997 as The New Batman Adventures. According to Hoegee, this had been suggested by Sam Register, producer of the series, after he and producer David Slack had left the show, leaving Murakami and story editor and writer Amy Wolfram to develop and put together a pitch for the rebrand that would have expanded the team with the characters introduced in the fifth season, and bring in a brand new villain who had ties to some classic.

Multimedia Presence and Cultural Impact

During its run, the series was nominated for three Annie Awards and one Motion Picture Sound Editors Award. Spin-off media included comics, DVD releases, video games, music albums, and collectible toys. In 2013, the show spawned a reboot, titled Teen Titans Go!, which received a theatrical film that was released on July 27, 2018, titled Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. In 2019, a crossover film with Teen Titans Go! was released, titled Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. The series was first shown on Boomerang from February 2, 2009, until October 29, 2010. It returned to Boomerang's line-up on September 5, 2011, and left the schedule again on June 1, 2014.