Warner Bros has made several adjustments to its DC Extended Universe (DCEU) over the years but wasn’t really able to reach the heights of success that rarefied the MCU. Consequently, it was eventually shut down at the end of 2023. However, the media giant has since decided to reboot the entire franchise with the MCU’s James Gunn and Peter Safran at the helm, hoping to make a more cohesive and better-received universe this time. The shift towards this new universe has left most of the previous releases behind, and the new DC Universe is supposed to open up with the upcoming Superman movie, scheduled for a July 11, 2025 release.
However, not everything from the old DCEU is dead and buried. Certain DCEU characters, such as Peacemaker, Amanda Waller, and Blue Beetle, will be transitioned to the DCU. Given the sheer popularity of the Peacemaker series and the relative success of Blue Beetle, it would be a shame to let those characters go. In fact, the second season of Peacemaker will take place in the new DC Universe. There are also other new releases on the horizon, such as The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and an untitled Teen Titans movie.
The latter is particularly interesting since its development was just recently announced, although we might have an idea as to why Warner Bros. (now officially called Warner Bros. Discovery) suddenly expressed interest in adapting Teen Titans. But more on that later. The details surrounding the recently announced Teen Titans movie are pretty scarce. Next to nothing is known about the project, except that Ana Nogueira has been tapped to pen the screenplay for the project. Yes, the same writer is also working on the aforementioned Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
As for why and how WBD came to the idea of adapting Teen Titans, well, there are a couple of reasons as to that. The fans of DC Comics have already gotten used to the fact that WBD is a reactionary company, which means it does better when following examples instead of having the vision to carve its own path. The only reason we got the DCEU in the first place was because the company has the rights to a massive number of fan-favorite superheroes and has decided to cash in on them in the same way Marvel had done with theirs.
Teen Titans is a relatively old comic book, with the team first appearing in the issue of The Brave and the Bold #54 in July 1964, but the series wouldn’t become a genuine hit until its 1980s revival as The New Teen Titans. The comic book became incredibly popular, and the Titans were adapted to other media numerous times. These were primarily DC’s animated projects, which have fared far better and more consistently than DC’s live-action releases. There was one live-action series, Titans, but it received a mixed reception among the critics and the fans.
But in 2023, the Blue Beetle movie came out, and at quite an inconvenient time, considering that the DCEU was shutting down and WBD was establishing the DC Universe. In the beginning, WBD was quite open and vocal about the movie not being part of the new DC Universe, considering that it failed to meet the company’s expectations on the financial front. The poor financial performance could be attributed to two concurrent strikes in Hollywood, among other factors.
But the subsequent success Blue Beetle had with the critics and the crowd watching the film on streaming probably changed WBD’s mind. The company soon changed its stance and decided to keep the film and its eponymous character as part of its new DC Universe. Please note this is just speculation on our side and not official information. But given Warner Bros.’s track record of going where the money is, we can’t really say that our opinion has no basis in reality.
Whatever the case may be, Blue Beetle is already one of the members of the Teen Titans superhero team (not the original team, though), and the movie provides a good foundation for the Teen Titans story. Considering that Teen Titans is among WB’s best-selling comics (DC Comics is a subsidiary of WBD) and the fact that the team has been massively successful in animated releases, it’s really not that surprising that WBD approved the Teen Titans live-action adaptation. In fact, it’s completely expected because they’re doing the same thing over again: following the money.
There’s really nothing wrong with that; the sole purpose of the movie industry, and any other industry for that matter, is to deliver a product and/or a service in exchange for compensation. However, given just how poorly they’ve treated the DCEU and several other comic book adaptations, we have to wonder about the quality of the upcoming content. Hopefully, they’ll fare better than Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.